Garden Grown

For the past few years, I've been wanting to plant a garden, but never really had a place to have one. This year, I asked my mom and my step-dad if I could plant one at their house. They have a few acres of property. My step-dad was kind enough to till up a decent sized plot for me to plant. I had corn, peas, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes.

The corn started off great, but when it came time to pick them, there were several that were not very good to eat.

I was able to get a lot of green beans and cucumbers.

With the green beans, my mom taught me how to get them ready to freeze.

My freezer is pretty stocked for the winter months with the green beans. I can't wait to use them in vegetable soup or green bean dumpling soup.

With a lot of the cucumbers, I tried a recipe for dill pickles that my mom had given me. It was actually quite simple.

Combine 2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar*, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon dill seed, 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, and 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; stir. Quarter 6 pickling cucumbers lengthwise, and place in a bowl or jar; add 3/4 ounce fresh dill. Top with hot vinegar mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
(July 2013 Cooking Light magazine)

*Next time I use this recipe, I'm going to try 1 cup of vinegar instead. I had several people tell me there seemed to be too much vinegar, but otherwise, the pickles turned out well.

Now I have pickles to last me for the next year!!