Pickle my fancy....

Last weekend, we went to Frog Pond which is a local produce stand (although much bigger than a side-of-the-road stand). We like to go there on the weekend to get fruits and veggies, and it is also the place where we get our turkey chicks. We bought kirby cucumbers, Roma tomatoes, green beans, kiwi, plums, honey stix, and green peppers. Last night, I got to the kirby cukes with my plans to make homemade pickles.



I washed up the cukes and then quartered them into spears. I made the pickling brine (a double batch before it was over), let it boil as per the directions, and then poured it over the cukes and covered with wax paper for 30 minutes. (It was at this point that I realized I needed to make more brine to cover the cukes, so I quickly made another batch and poured it over them. I sterilized some pint-sized canning jars and lids, cut up garlic and added spices to all of the jars. I then put in the cukes and poured the brine over with enough headspace to allow for expansion. Next, it was into the hot water bath for 15 minutes. Allison, who loves pickles, started asking me how long it would be until we could eat them. Patience, dear grasshopper, patience... After a nice hot bath, I removed the jars and placed them on a cooling rack to sit overnight.



I can't wait to try them in a few days. I am really enjoying this canning experience. I asked Pete last night if we would be going back to Frog Pond this weekend so I can look through my canning recipe books to see what I can make next. Tonight: Finish the green beans (I didn't have fresh dill) and the second batch of pineapple salsa. I need to buy more jars! :o)

Have a dilly-licious day!
:o) jenn

Introduction

As I have started to "follow" other blogs here, I decided that I should probably have an introductory blog on my page. I have many "blogs to do" but have to upload the accompanying photos to this computer. I guess this will be my big job for next week. My name is Jenn. I live in upstate NY (Windsor, NY) on a small hobby farm with my partner, Pete, and our 15-year-old daughter, Allison. We have a pointer/lab mix dog who is 5 and named "Herbie Herbalicious" and a beta fish named "Charles". We moved here 18 months ago. We are relatively "newbie" farmers, although I had backyard chickens at my previous house. Our home is literally located on top of a mountain in the middle of the woods and we have have a small barn, part of which has been converted into our chicken coop. Through an access door, our chickens are able to get into their "yard" which is an 1800 ft^2 penned area that they share with our ducks and turkeys. When we are home, we give them full free-range access to our gardens and woods.





At present, we have 15 ducks and 25 chickens and 2 rabbits out in the barn. In our brooders, we have 19 chicks (ranging from 3 days old to 3 weeks old), 4 turkeys (about 2 weeks old), and 6 pekin ducklings (about 3 weeks old). We have 7 chicken eggs in our Brinsea MiniAdvance Incubator(anticipated hatch day May 19), a clutch of 12 eggs under a broody duck (due to hatch approximately the same time), and I have "on order" 4 muscovy ducks that are due to hatch about the same time.

We are undertaking many new adventures that I will be blogging about this year including canning (I have already done two batches), cheesemaking (we have done one feta but will be doing more this week), beer brewing and wine making (first brew scheduled to take place this Sunday).



I hope that you will enjoy reading about our adventures. This year is going to be a great year of "firsts" for us as we hone our skills.