During the summer, the wild cucumber does its growing unnoticed.  In the green groves of trees, it is barely visible.  Its 5-lobed leaves begin to spread.  The vine lengthens and reaches for a sturdy support on which to grow. As the summer season passes on into August the vines are apparent to passersby. Tall trees support the vines and leaves.  If unchecked, these vines can kill the supportive tree.

 

 

Also, in mid-August, we see  wild cucumber blossoms coming forth. They are delicate white flowers that decorate it’s fruiting stem.

 

 

 

I had no more patience today when I saw them on my trees.  I pulled down several of the vines climbing on our arbor. Besides pulling down vines, I severed the vines from the parent plant. My goal is to prevent the fruiting and new plant growth.

 

 

 

 

Blossoms, of course, form a fruit.  It is a spiny globe that will house seeds to plant more of their kind in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the growing season, the spent wild cucumbers become ghostly shells.  The released seeds lurk silently awaiting the next growing season, ready to cover underbrush or trees in next year’s scenery.

 

 

photo credit:Wenda Grabau
photo credit:Wenda Grabau
photo credit:Wenda Grabau
photo credit: aarongunnar via photopin cc
photo credit: Shezamm via photopin cc

For break time, on a hot day while we are haying, we treat ourselves to icy-cold popsicles.

 

 

 

 

 

We freeze several trays of popsicles in preparation for haying and for treating our grandchildren when they visit.

 

Here is the recipe I use. We have used several flavors, but the favorite color is red.

Popsicles

• 1 (3oz). package of flavored gelatin dissolved in 1 cup of boiling or steaming hot water
• add 1 package of same flavor Kool-Ade
• add 1 cup of sugar
• add water to make the total volume of the mixture to equal 2 quarts

Pour into molds to make popsicles.  I use the Tupperware variety.  Freeze.

(I have used the lemonade flavor Kool-Ade with several colors of gelatin and it works.)

I hope you enjoy these frosty treats.

photo credits:Wenda Grabau

 

I picked cucumbers.  My recipe calls for scrubbing off the black points of the cucumber and soaking them in cold water for one hour. My dill is not ready.  Can I still make pickles?

 

 

 

 

 

I can pickle using last year’s dill.  That’s right.  I froze dill last year.  It works just fine.

 

 

The frozen dill comes out of the package frosty, perhaps, …

 

 

 

…but it is green and flavorful. I rinse the herb before I use it and pack it in the canning jar.  I put one big flower (or the equivalent of dill leaves) in the bottom of the jar and when the cucumber slices are packed in I add one more.

 

 

With this recipe, it is not hard to can only a few jars of pickles at a time.   I do process these in a water bath.  I have tried that before and it gives me a mushy pickle.  Without the waterbath, the pickles come out crunchy.  The downside is that the jars do not all seal well.  I store the unsealed jars in my refrigerator.  They are delicious.

 

 

I think it is time to go back to my garden and see if there are other cucumbers on the vine waiting for my attention. They do look inviting on my  cellar shelf.

photo credits:Wenda Grabau

 

Jars are interesting.  If you have been a grocery shopper for as long as I have, you will notice that many jars of food on the grocery shelves are not glass any more.  Ketchup and mayonnaise are prime examples. Now they are sold with plastic bottles.

 

 

 

 

 

Plastic works for a one time use.  Glass on the other hand, can be washed, even sterilized, and be re-used, as long as it does not get broken. I use my glass jars over and over. For instance, I use gallon jars for canisters and baby food jars for storing homegrown herbs and spices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a bunch of the old glass bottles from years past.  For jam or jelly, I use old glass jars with their lids that I have saved from buying olives, maraschino cherries, ice cream toppings and preserves. (That is called re-cycling.) They work great for jellies sealed with parafin wax or for freezer jams.

 

 

 

 

For anything that needs to be stored in pints or quarts I use mason jars. The two part lids come in handy. The vacuum produced from the heat and the cooling of my preserved foods gives me the ability to store these foods on the shelf and not in refrigerator, freezer, crock or root cellar. Mason jars are made to withstand the pressure and temperature of a pressure cooker. As long as there are no chips on the sealing edge at the top of the jar, the seal should keep very well. If you are buying jars at an auction or garage sale, avoid chipped or cracked jars.

Glass jars are a real help around this farm. I hope these tidbits of information help you in your recycling of glass jars. Re-using them may come in handy for you, too.

Photo credits: Wenda Grabau

After we finished picking in the prickly, red raspberry patch, my daughter and I were delighted to find that there were some currants ready for picking, too. We both spent time picking till the sun finally set.

We got a good crop. Of course, I wish we could have gotten twice as many as we did. These thornless bushes made the harvest painless.

 

 

 

You will notice from the photo that several berries grow on a tender, green stem.  I pick them stem and all.  Once I get them in the house, I wash them and remove the stems.

 

 

 

 

I mash the currants, add water to the berries, bring them to a boil and let it simmer 10 minutes. The juice is then strained through several layers of cheesecloth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pectin is added to the juice and brought to a boil.  Sugar is added and the mixture is boiled again. The juice is skimmed to eliminate foam in the jelly.  The jelly is ready to ladle into prepared mason jar and processed in the canner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When finished the jelly is cooled

 

 

 

 

 

 

and labeled.

These jars of jelly will remind us of the delight of summer now and during the winter. 

photo credits: Wenda Grabau