This year's 4th of July was one for the record books. Literally. We broke a record in middle TN. Out here, south of town the high for the day was 66 degrees! It was fabulous. It rained ALL day. We had the windows open and it was almost chilly. Needless to say, the sound of the rain was heavenly. Our dinner plans changed from chicken on the grill to pizza indoors, which was fine with me. The rain did stop in time for the fireworks display in Nashville. I heard it was a wonderful show.
The gardens are loving all of this rain. Cucumber season has officially begun. We've had 3 bad summers previous to this one with record breaking triple digits temps and drought. Our cukes didn't do well and we didn't have enough at one time to put up pickles. But this year is totally different. The cukes are coming in like crazy. I put my first batch of dill pickles up last week. Today, I'll be making them again.
Breakfast consisted of a cucumber placed inside a hotdog bun brushed with mayo and topped with sea salt. Happiness~
Above we have:
Our pickling cukes. I'm harvesting them in two sizes. The smaller ones to put up whole and the larger ones will be sliced and used on sandwiches.
A new slicing cuke that I'm trying this year. It's Suyo Long. They grow to 15". I picked the first one this morning, so I have no idea how they taste. Stay tuned.
Pickling cuke vines.
Slicing cuke vines.
John Mac's Super Chilly Dills. Our recipe can be found here.
Until next time.....
