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A Cucumber the Size of a Boxcar

This morning's sunrise over the was amazing.  The perfectly still water reflected the sun and -- at that point -- not threatening clouds. An hour later we had wind, waves, and a fair amount of rain just under an inch in 45 minutes. We were fortunate to have missed the high winds and hail that have caused damage around us during much of this week. Near the airport hail the size of ping-pong balls with very jagged edges fell the other evening. Two night's ago strong winds toppled 15 power poles outside Sheffield. We've been lucky with these late summer storms.

Ok, not really the size of a regular train box car
but it would fill the flat car on an HO model railroad.

The garden continues to do well.  The tomatoes are slowing down. The pole beans are still producing. I planted a couple of rows of bush beans last week. They're up and my fingers crossed that I might get some beans before freeze takes the garden.  But I might need to rig up some frost shields. 

Then there are the sneaky cucumbers.  I should have known better than to rely on my eyes to find the ones just right to pick. I should have remembered my grandfather's practice of shaking the trellised vines to find the cucumbers hiding among the leaves. I hadn't and so the other day here was this beauty. Now I usually try to follow my mother-in-law's practice of only using the nice, skinny, and thin skinned cucumbers for Bread & Butter Pickles.  But then I remembered the philosophy behind my niece's  food cart in Madison, WI -- The Ugly Apple -- which also fits with my father's family-famous celebration of his Scottish heritage.  In short -- Use everything to its best advantage.  Now we could have just eaten this monster. Instead, I peeled half the thick skin off in lengthwise stripes. Then cut it in half and scooped out the seeds. Finally sliced it like its handsomer cousins for the pickles below.

Once the jars were filled you couldn't tell that some of the pickles weren't "State Fair Perfect."  They sure tasted great.

Classic Bread & Butter Pickles
Recipe below is adapted from the 1960s edition of the
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
So many pages were torn out by helpful two year olds that I've
lost the copyright page. But I didn't lose the recipe!

Classic Bread & Butter Pickles 

4 quarts sliced cucumbers
1-3 cups sliced sweet peppers -- I like the small red ones
1/3 cup pickling salt
about 3 cups small ice cubes or crushed ice
5 cups white sugar
3 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
2 tablespoons mustard seeds

Go to the USDA website to read about safe canning practices if you don't already know how to safely put food up in jars. https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html

To Make the Pickles:
Slice the cucumbers into thin rounds. Cut the peppers into small pieces, or rings. Mix with salt and ice and set aside in a cool place for at least 3 hours. Drain the mixture.

Combine the sugar, vinegar, and spices in a large kettle. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Add the well-drained cucumbers and bring to a boil. Fill the jars with the sliced vegetables and top with extra liquid if needed.  Process according the USDA guidelines.

Makes about 8 pints.

NOTE: If you only have a few extra cucumbers you can make a smaller batch and store in sterilized jars without processing in the refrigerator for a couple of months.


Copyright 2018 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved 

And the Tomatoes are Here!

Oh YUM!  Our six tomato plants have come into their own.  I'm rather pleased with the varieties we planted this year. Some came early, some are best for putting up, and some-- the Brandywine and Purple Cherokee are perfect for BLTs, or just plain eating out of hand while they are still warm and extra juicy from the afternoon sun.

We have cucumbers, beans, summer squash, and some chard and beets coming as well. So all in all, between the garden and the Clear Lake Farmer's Market held at the Surf parking lot every Saturday morning we'll be in good shape come October with packages of vegetables in the freezer and jars of pickles and my favorite tomato chili sauce relish on the shelf.

This Tomato Chili Sauce adds a fabulous spicy accent to all kinds of dishes.
Mix it into ground beef for a superior meatloaf.
Combine with honey for a great chicken bbq glaze.
Or just use to top a tasty hot dog. 

1860s Tomato Chili Sauce 

2 quarts ripe tomatoes
1 large onion
6 small green peppers
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups vinegar, white or cider
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon EACH ground allspice, ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, and nutmeg

Peel and seed the tomatoes, peel and chop the onion, seed the peppers. Use a food processor, blender, or food grinder to chop the vegetables into very small pieces, about 1/4 of an inch. Do not over process. You want recognizable pieces, not mush. Combine the vegetables with the remaining ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the onions look transparent and the mixture has thickened. Stir frequently as it has a tendency to scorch as it nears the end of the cooking time. Put into hot sterilized canning jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Or you may process following USDA guidelines.



Copyright 2018  Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.

The Cucumbers are Coming

Now that we're past the Fourth of July it is time for gardens and their hoped for bounty to take front stage.

So I've got cucumbers!  OK they're not the prettiest cucumbers I've ever seen. And they are not enough for pickles, but it is good to finally have freshly picked produce to define the day's dinner. We've had green beans for three weeks. Picked three tomatoes -- OK I cheated on this one and bought a pot tomato plant with a couple of fruits already set. They've ripened at least two weeks ahead of the Early Girl. Mighty tasty, too. The other vines are coming along. My favorite heirloom Brandywine has lots of baby tomatoes growing toward their one-pound harvest size. Summer squash are taking their time getting going. Only have male blossoms.  Humph.

Weather seems to be cooperating-- finally. Not boiling hot, suitably humid, with an inch of rain once a week or so. I do water the garden.. from the uneven diameter of those cucumbers, I could probably to a better job.

There are lots more coming. And the Clear Lake Farmer's Market, held every Saturday from 9 to noon in the Surf parking lot, is a good source for goodies as well.

I'll put up some pickles.  If you get a hankering for an easy to make small batch pickle here's a different and delicious recipe from my newest book  Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin famously wrote of the importance of pickles to healthy eating
in Poor Richard's Almanac that
" Squeamish stomachs cannot eat without pickles." 
And the corollary that "Hunger is the best pickle." 
This easy to make recipe covers both situations. 

The recipe from the 1700s combines fresh ginger root with
sliced cucumbers for a tasty pickle. Put into sterilized jars
(you can use your dishwasher for this) and store in
the refrigerator for a month or so.. if they last that long.

Ben Franklin's Cucumbers Pickled in Slices

3 cucumbers, about 8 inches in length

1 medium onion

2 tablespoons salt

1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar or white while vinegar

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

One piece of fresh ginger root, about 2 inches by 1/2 inch, peeled and cu into thin matchsticks. 

Wash the cucumbers and cut them into slices about 1/8 inch thick. Peel the onion, cut in half lengthwise, and then cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Layer the cucumber and onion slices in a non-reactive bowl, sprinkling salt between the layers. Cover and let stand in a cool place for 2 hours. 

Drain off the accumulated juices. Pour the vinegar over the vegetables and continue to let stand in a cool place for another 4 hours. 

Drain the vinegar into a saucepan, add the mace and peppercorns, and bring to a boil. Divide the cucumbers and sliced fresh ginger between two hot, sterilized pint canning jars. Carefully pour the boiling vinegar over the cucumbers. Put lids and screw bands on the jars and let stand in a cool place for 2 or 3 days, shaking occasionally. As the original 1717 recipe said: "In two or three days they will be fit to eat." Store in the refrigerator for up to a month. 

Makes 2 pints. 

Copyright 2018 Rae Katherine Eighmey  All rights reserved 

And for tips on growing good cucumbers, this link to Good Housekeeping has some tips and a list of seeds to look for to plant next year.

Chicken Salad with the Entire Garden Pea and Spinach Harvests on One Plate and Rain... Rain.. and yet More Rain

First day of Summer and yet more raindrops decorate my window. 

At this point I look at the rain gauge, dump it out, share my reading with the other gauge-keepers on our corner, and try to put the amounts out of my mind.  3.3 --- 2.1 --- 2 --- .7 (wa-hoo under an inch!) and 2. All in the past week.  One good thing, the Lake is going into the season very full!

We've been more fortunate than many. Farm fields and basements have been flooded out. Here the ground is soggy.  Large mushrooms are popping up, but they're not morels so I'm ignoring them. The grass grows to beat the band when the sun does shine. And parts of the vegetable garden is thriving. Tomatoes and cucumbers are setting fruit. Green beans are blooming. Pole beans are climbing. The squash is still a bit slow. Then there are the peas and spinach.  More about them in a bit.

It has been a wet and very strange year. After a relatively dry winter we had 30 inches of snow in late March and APRIL!  The product of three blizzards with sustained 30 mph winds and even stronger gusts. I swear I shoveled out the same 4-foot drift a dozen times... maybe even a baker's dozen times. The extraordinarily late spring has delayed a great deal around the lake.

The dock installers were working 7-day weeks with very long hours to get docks set up before the Memorial Day start of the season. Unusually high temperatures in mid-May and into June with heat indexes in the 100s came next. And just as the dock crews were almost finished with just a few to go, the wall cloud rolled over the lake tearing out docks and shredding boat lift covers, upending some boats, and off the lake uprooting trees in city Park and along the north shore. Today on the first day of summer the weather seems like fall. We have a chilly mist, driving wind, white caps for a generally dreary day where no one can do any outdoor work.

So now the peas and spinach

Back to the snowy spring. The garden was too cold and wet to put peas and spinach in the ground. In fact it was under feet of snow when I usually plant. So I decided to plant some in pots in the garden.  They came up fairly well.  The crop was small. Last week. when the heat index was 103 I decided it was too hot to cook. So I thawed out some grilled chicken, harvested the entire pea crop -- about 1/4 cup and entire spinach crop  -- about 1 cup -- and tossed together a light supper.

It was just the meal we needed to dream of normal summer days. Temperatures in the 80s. Low humidity.  Light rain showers ONLY overnight.

On the plate: Chicken Salad with fresh peas, spinach and cucumbers drizzled with balsamic dressing, deviled eggs, and French bread with what I'm calling "So-So Fruit" Compote

Quick Chicken Salad

2 cups diced cooked chicken
1/2 cup diced celery
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup pecan halves
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 cup (more or less) light mayonnaise

Combine all ingredients. Chill for at least  half an hour before serving. Will keep in the fridge for two days.


Just like this season's weather sometimes the peaches and pineapple are not what you think they are when you get them home... So here's the recipe for:

"So-So Fruit" Compote 
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 2-inch sprig fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves

one peach, peeled, stoned and cut into roughly 1/8 pieces
1/2 - 3/4 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1/4 - 1/2  cup pitted fresh cherries

Make a syrup combining the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the rosemary and cilantro. Continue cooking for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover. Set aside to cool.  When ready to make the compote, remove the rosemary and cilantro leaves. Add fruit to syrup and pulse with an immersion blender until the fruit is in very small pieces, but stop before you have a puree. Pour mixture into a skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until the compote is thickened. Will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks. Good on bread, or ice cream.