The time came for me to finally make the dill pickles that had been planned since last spring. The garlic was ready, having been harvested and hung to dry several weeks ago. The dill was ready. I was pretty certain the cucumbers were ready. I admit I hadn’t been down to that garden in a while but it couldn’t have been more than a week since my last visit. At that time there were lots of cucumbers that were growing nicely. So I went down to the garden to pick some perfectly symmetrical, perfectly sized cucumbers to fit into the 500 ml mason jars.
You can see the problem. I had no idea that cucumbers grew so fast. This was not an isolated problem either, I picked about thirty cucumbers this size which gave me plenty of time to think about just how few ways there are to eat cucumbers. They are not the most versatile vegetable. Not wanting to waste them, and not able to think of what else to do, I went ahead and made the pickles.
I sliced them instead of leaving them whole as the recipe instructed. I have no idea how they will turn out. I made two batches but still have plenty of these large cucumbers to use up. I have not completely given up on my original plan because on the vines there are still plenty of these that I will be watching very closely:
My curiosity and interest in natural dyes continues. Looking around I saw that the sumac flowers were both numerous and bright so I thought I would try making a dye with them. Since my last experiment with stainless steel versus cast iron gave such dramatic results, I thought I would duplicate the experiment using sumac. By sumac I mean this plant:
I don’t know about anyone else, but frequently when people refer to a plant I have no idea what they are talking about so I have provided a picture. I put 650 grams of the flowers in a cast iron pot with twelve cups of water and did the same in a stainless steel pot. I boiled them for two hours then turned off the heat and let them steep for eleven hours. I had pre-mordanted some 100% natural coloured wool from Briggs & Little in alum and cream of tartar. I added about 750 meters to each dye bath and brought that to a simmer. I turned off the heat and let the wool sit in the dye bath for eight hours. I rinsed it, let it dry and got these results:
On the left is the wool dyed in the stainless steel pot and on the right is the wool dyed in the cast iron pot. I was secretly hoping to get some shade of pink simply because it is so elusive and although I was disappointed in that respect I was pleasantly surprised by what I did get, particularly the gray. I am having a hard time believing what a difference the type of pot can make. I can see getting different shades of the same colour, but I’m getting completely different colours.
You probably don’t need me to tell you that summer is slipping by quickly. This year we had quite a large crop of red currants. Normally the birds get to them before I do but this year there were plenty for everyone.
I tried making some jelly. The keyword here is “tried”. It’s a bit thick. I am exaggerating – it is unbelievably thick. It is hard to get a knife into it, that’s how thick it is. I am dutifully eating it with cream cheese on a bagel every morning and it tastes okay, but did I mention that it is a bit thick? I might try again if the birds haven’t made off with the rest of the currants.
I love watching the peas developing in the pods, it’s like nature’s little ultrasound. Dragonflies are pretty fascinating as well, you can’t see it in this picture but they have wings that sparkle. Even though I’m someone who thinks that sparkles are best avoided I really love the way the wings sparkle. I think if you are going to have wings, they should sparkle.
I haven’t been into the woods much because the mosquitoes and I are having a turf war and they have claimed the woods. Last week I sprayed myself with a toxic amount of insect repellent and headed into the woods. Since it has been a pretty wet summer I guess it isn’t surprising that there are a lot of mushrooms. The only thing I know about mushrooms is that you shouldn’t eat them unless you buy them at a grocery store so although I can’t name them, here are some pictures of a few of the many different types.
