Zucchini garden

Whoa - look at my zucchini/squash/cucumber garden... Few days of rain and high temperatures and these plants took over.

In the front here are some squash plants and cucumber plants.

And here in the back are the zucchinis. 

I am very paranoid this year and watch every morning and evening my plants in case I would see some cucumber beetle. So far so good - with a lot of prayer...

Look at these baby squash... too bad they all rotted. As of now I found only one good squash and one good zucchini. 

Pickling cucumbers one jar at a time

Hello everyone! With all these cucumbers coming out of my garden I am ready to pickle!!! I am so excited mainly because last year all my cucumber plants got killed by cucumber beetle and I believe I had only one to enjoy :-( So this year I am taking full advantage of healthy crop and I am going to pickle them... One jar at a time!

My grandpa back in Czech Republic used to collect them and when he had a good amount he would pickle them all at once. he gave me his recipe but that will just not do for me. Not only do I not have much time to spend a hole afternoon to pickle but also I don't have much fridge space (see he had a cold cellar where everything lasted forever ;-)

Go over here for the recipe and make one jar. Let it sit for a week and then taste it. That is what I did. Although the recipe worked very well and everything sealed properly and the pickles were nice and crunchy, I needed a bit more spicing. I think that is very individual and that is why I recommend making one jar first and try it before you go do next one. You can add or take away some ingredients to  meet you taste buds ;-) (I will be adding more garlic and dill) Good luck!