Harvest Time is Starting

Well, the inside of my house was really suffering. =) I was busy, busy outside and only did the barest of inside chores. Well, after a week of that, it really showed. So, Monday I stayed in all day and cleaned, and straightened and all sorts of things. I had checked on things in the garden over the weekend and picked what was ready. We still have lots of weeding to catch up on, plus stay up on current weeding. Then my Dad is up here from Florida. He was coming to my house Tuesday afternoon and was staying for dinner. I wanted to make up something special for dinner, and do some other clean up type stuff around the house. On Wednesday it rained all day, so I did not go in the garden. OK... for 3 days I was not out there checking on things.

I have quite a few cucumbers in my refrigerator. We have used some in salads and I have given some away. On my way to milk the goats last night, I noticed a couple of rather large cucumbers. Now after 3 days of not being looked at a couple of large cucumbers did not worry me. Well, you see the haul that I made last night. I stopped and started picking and picking. I actually have given some of what I picked away already. So, today I will be making pickles and a bowl of cukes and sweet onions in vinegar and sugar. I am going to make crock pickles today because they are so easy. I am waiting on a tried and true and tasted by me bread and butter pickle recipe from my niece. I have always loved her mother's bread and butter pickles and they are giving me the recipe. I have 4 zuchinni (this is after giving some away) and one yellow squash as well. I will try and incorporate them into dinner tonight. Have you ever heard of zoodles? I have this nifty contraption that you can make long strings out of potatoes or zuchinni. You use the zuchinni in place of pasta. You don't boil them like you do pasta. To cook zoodles you saute them briefly in a pan with some olive oil or butter. Also add a bit of garlic or if you are me, add LOTS of garlic. It only takes a few moments to get to a crispy tender texture sort of like pasta.

I don't know if my cucumbers cross pollinated or what. I had 4 hills of pickle cucumbers and 2 hills of regular cukes. I can't figure out which is which. Does anyone have any clues? I was going to write down a map of my garden, and then talked myself out of it, because I would remember. HAH!! Don't listen to yourself if that is what your are hearing.