It has been a soggy holiday weekend with a much needed rain that has kept us out of the fields the last couple of days but conditions did not stop the other activities around here since I’ve continued to make jam (blueberry at this point) and have started the first of the pickle makings! Yahoo!

The cukes are best when first harvested at the desired size of about 4-5 inches long and require a twice a day picking at this point in order to not let them grow too quickly and get out of hand. Given some daytime heat and some extra moisture, they will increase in size significantly in a short amount of time so we have to be zealous about harvesting. We planted 2 varieties in 18 hills with 4 plants each and they are doing great this year!  The bees love to help out with pollination! So, much like other years, I have started with our favorite sweet pickle recipe and weighed up 9 pounds on each of the last couple of days to wash and slice up.

They get a quick brine in a vinegar/salt/sugar/mustard seed mixture on the stove top which is essentially blanching them in a brine mixture for several minutes before draining.I then pack them tightly – steaming hot – into pint jars before adding a sweetly spiced, cooked syrup that has thickened on the stove top in the background. Ouch to fingers!This reliable recipe makes 10 pints of crisp, sweet pickles which I’ve done twice already in the last two days. I’ve already made 31 half pints of blueberry jam in addition to freezing countless gallon bags of them. If it weren’t raining, I’d be picking berries now to add to the 90 plus pounds I have harvested this year to date. Here are some of the pickles and blueberry jam jars cooling while waiting for labels.The garlic bulbs have finished drying after two weeks on their screen bed and were ready today to trim and put in the “root cellar”, aka the basement. I cut their long necks and put them into the mesh bags I had purchased for this purpose and off they went to hang in a dark, cool corner of the basement where I will send my messenger, Dave, to grab a head every now and then for cooking during the coming year.

Dave started digging the potatoes recently and got less than three of the ten rows dug so far – weighing in over 53 pounds – before the rain started in so they are also in the cool, dark basement as well! We expect quite a nice continued harvest of Pontiac Reds to compliment more of the Yukon Golds as seen below. With all the processing I’ve been doing these days, I decided to wise up and get some bulk items to help keep the cost down. For instance, I found a great pectin supplier in a small, family owned company in northern California called Pacific Pectin. So instead of opening an individual package of Sure-Gel every time I make a batch of jam, I’m measuring out the equivalent amount from a 10 pound box. What a savings for a jam maker like me!I’ve also taken to buying my sugar in 25lb bags. This requires some strong arms and pre-planning which I’ve been working on as well as the supplies for pickles shown here. Gallon containers of vinegar were on sale recently so I’m grabbing as many jugs and noting the amounts subtracted from each so as to keep my constant measuring sensible. When I have time, I pre-measure bags of sugar for specific recipes so that I have a system called ‘mis en place’ – French for ‘things in place’ – so as to keep the stress of the fast paced, heated cooking the simplest. This helped out when making 85 jars of strawberry jam!Other crops are doing well and we are serving a large variety at mealtimes: turnips, broccoli, swiss chard, lettuces, scallions, peas and peppers and more. The tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and it looks as though we will have a good harvest. I’m investigating another method of preserving our harvest this year as I purchased a vacuum sealer recently. Everyone raves about these machines but I’ve been hesitant since I’ve been pretty successful so far with my other tools. So far, so good. I worked up some Swiss chard today into nice bundles for the freezer. I consider this another tool in my war chest…I’ll keep you posted as to my opinion of usefulness. So, besides all I’m trying to accomplish on the farm lately, I’ve been asked to give a presentation at the Missouri Botanical Garden, August 2nd, on Preserving Your Harvest. What an honor…but it does require me to get a professional presentation ready so this is how I’m spending my spare time! My biggest fear is a sea of empty seats, so please attend if you can!

We had a fun visit from our avid blog reader and friend, Mary Ann Segal and husband Paul, who came in from Beloit, WI for the weekend and got to see what is going on at the farm! Photo credit to Mary Ann who documented the visit with this pic! Of course we had homemade blueberry coffee cake to munch on!The chicks provided some of the entertainment and at one week old, are doing quite well despite eating us out of house and home as they are consuming at least 3 quarts of feed each day! Tail feathers are now apparent on some of the varieties.

Despite the rainy day, we joined the Wards for a bit of fun Independence Day celebration. Coulter rode in the neighborhood street parade in his decorated wagon.And we joined in for a group photo that included other JBS faculty members and their families! Happy Fourth of July!