We Are All Ears

For the first time this season we have CORN! They made an amazing treat tonight. As we enjoyed our sweet ears of corn, which didn't need anything on them, we remarked that we can't ever remember having corn this fresh. Now we can't wait for the rest to mature.

As for the rest of vegetables, tonight we pulled out some real prize winning cucumbers and zucchini (check out the six-inch ruler at the bottom of the picture). Lucy!, looks like we got some more preserving to do!

Ba-Ba Black Bean

The other night, I decided that it was time to harvest all of our black bean pods. After picking and placing the pods into a large kitchen mixing bowl, and grabbed one of our left over mason jars, and sat down next to my wife on our couch. As we began threshing, or shelling each pod, our daughter decided she wanted to help. Setting herself up on the arm of the couch, she bean copying our actions. Taking a pod from the bowl, pinching the bottom end, and pulling the string toward the top of the pod, she successfully unzipped the seam. Slitting each unzipped pod open with her tiny fingers popped each bean from its birth, depositing it into the jar. By the end we had shelled enough beans to fill the jar three quarts of the way full. What a fun way to spend time with my family.

Over the next few days we dried the beans in the sun. We found it so entertaining that by the end the beans had reduced to fill only about a quarter of the jar. This has really given us an appreciation for the vast number of bean pods required to yield enough beans to bill any of the bags we can purchase at the store.

We're Just Pickled Pink

We did it!

With an abundance of cucumbers loitering in the kitchen we decided to try our hand at pickling and canning. Specifically we we choose to try our hand at making sweet pickle relish, and bread and butter pickles. We following the recipes to the letter, and although we did not have all of the recommend tools, we made it work. It was so satisfying to hear each lid "pop" as the jars cooled from their stint in the bath of boiling water. From our canning adventure we learned that process is very easy, a bit time intensive, very Hot and Humid, and even therapeutic. We can't wait to try our preserves, but frankly, we found ourselves a bit cucumber/pickled out.