Full Sours

When I started canning, one of the first things I put up were dill pickles. I love making pickles, and I’ve always loved eating them, but for some reason I was never really very interested in eating the ones I made. It took a few years and a little bit of reading up on pickling to realize that I was doing it all wrong. The half-sour and full-sour (or kosher dill) pickles I grew up eating in New York did not come from a jar full of vinegar. Though there are countless recipes for “kosher dill” vinegar pickles out there, the only way to make a real kosher dill pickle is by fermentation. Continue reading →

Garlic Harvest

A little over two weeks ago I pulled the garlic out of the ground. That’s very early for here, but the leaves were turning brown and it was ready to go. I think the very mild winter probably had something to do with it. I left it on the back porch to cure, and yesterday morning I brought my coffee out to the porch and set to work trimming the stalks. Continue reading →

June in the Garden

After the May frenzy to get everything planted, June feels like rather a quiet month in the garden. Every bed has been planted, and there’s not much to do but water and weed and wait for things to grow. We didn’t get much sun in May, but so far June has been beautiful. Everything seemed to be stalled for a few weeks, but now that the plants are enjoying some sunshine, they are really taking off. Continue reading →