Greetings all
It's been a while since I posted something here. With summer finally heating up, ironically during fall, some of my plants have started thriving!
My cucumber from months ago is still producing, doing better since I removed some fully grown fruits. I was gifted a petunia, which truly make all the difference when it came to pollinating. Later in the year, I intend to start to grow some nasturtiums from seeds to see if I have the same success.
My second cucumber was stunted for the longest time. Despite being smaller, it tried to produce a cucumber. Frustrated with its poor growth, I removed the small cucumber, and that made all the difference! It has since tripled in size and produced three more cucumbers. This is its latest cuke.
To the left, you can see a small bush bean trying to grow. I decided to try and grow a few more plants before the season ended. However, the soil I'm using is full of beetle larvae that have been eating my seedlings. The containers will need to be turned out and spread out to dry to deal with these pests. After the cukes are done, I'll be doing this.
Who remembers the tiny rosemary cutting I had? Well, here it is. It has already been used to make two cuttings for friends, been used in pickling and bone broth (more on that later). It did catch blight earlier in the season because I over-watered it, but it has recovered with a trim.
I finally had success with my tomatoes and peppers! The peppers have produced a single fruit, which I am nursing carefully. Here are a few tomato seedlings that have survived the beetle larvae. I think the only reason they are surviving is that as nightshades, they're producing enough toxin to keep them away. Our summer temperature just wasn't good enough until this point for the seedlings to do well, and I gave up earlier in summer because the seedlings never progressed beyond the first cotyledons. In the image, you can see that there are true leaves growing. Whether I'll get tomatoes or not is still to be seen.
I'm so proud of the first bell pepper I have ever grown. Paprika was so much easier to grow!
I didn't want my vegetables to just go to waste in the kitchen, so I made some pickles.
The cucumbers and rosemary sprigs are from my kitchen. The bell peppers were purchased.
Some prep work to ensure everything would fit into the jars I selected. And talking of...
Even with quick pickling, you have to ensure the jars are thoroughly cleaned and resting in hot water. This is important if you don't want them to crack which you pour in the boiling pickling brine, which is being made here.
Water, vinegar, and salt. I skipped the sugar this time due to trying to go law-carb. Since sugar is optional in this recipe, I gave it a complete skip. While the brine was reaching temperature, I moved onto stuffing the jars with herbs and spices.
Some minced garlic (I didn't have cloves), coriander, and my own rosemary was add. This was swiftly followed by the vegetables.
It's important to squash in the vegetables as tightly as possible to prevent too many air bubbles. I then returned the jars to the hot water and kept them there until the brine was ready.
After the brine was added (up to a 1/4 inch from the top), I used a wooden chop stick to dislodge any bubbles I found. It's okay to have some air bubbles with quick pickling as you're not meant to keep the food after about 2 months after the pickling is done.
That isn't all I have been making. I have been trying my hand at bone broth. For those that don't know, bone broth is a drink that is high in minerals, especially essential salts. This is vital to people trying keto or training hard, as they tend to lose more essential salts than other people. The recipe is fairly easy and doesn't cost much as you can mostly use left overs.
Previously I tried to make bone broth, I used vinegar, which left an odd taste. Not bad, but it odd. For this batch, I decided to try some apple cider vinegar. I tried some of this in the water earlier in the week. Not a fan, but let's see how it goes with this recipe. The acidity is meant to help leech calcium from the bones.
For the last two weeks, I have been telling everyone in my household to save all the bones from their meals. Most of this is chicken bones, but there is some pork here and there. You need about 2 pounds of bones, but this doesn't need to be exact. To this I added a tablespoon of mixed herbs, three tablespoons of minced garlic, and two tablespoons of salt. While the salt seems excessive, but I needed more than three liters of water to cover the bones.
This pot is still bubbling away in the kitchen and the smell is unbelievable! Not bad considering the broth is being made with scraps.
Technically, this broth should be boiling for 4-6 hours. I usually give it about two. Will let you all know how it turns out when it's done.
Anyway, I hope all of you are having fun with your gardens as much as I am! Write again soon!