2 types of blueberries were offered. A smaller sweeter and a large berry with a big blueberry flavor. The small bushes were brimming with ripe berries, so many that they could be picked with both hands. The larger berries were less plentiful but by no means skimpy. It was easy to pick a basked full from just a few bushes.

We transferred the berries to peck sized splint baskets to take home. The baskets were so full that we broke them into 2 baskets so the berries would not crush under their own weight.

We brought the berries home and sorted out all the bad berries, stems, insects and other debris and froze them on cookie sheets covered with waxed paper. When they are frozen solid we put them in plastic bags for future use.

They can be thawed for pies, jam, fruit salads and muffins.
Now we have a stock of blueberries and strawberries to use until they come into season next year.

The annual plants are done and we have just a few perennials left. We have had little time to work on garden projects between life happening and other exciting events.

Tonight we are putting up pickles, both bread and butter and dill. We grow 2 types of cukes for out pickles. Eureka for the bread and butter and regal for the dills. The eureka get fat and meaty for perfect bread and butter pickles while the regal stay smaller and tight for dills. It’s a bit of work but worth it for great pickles. By the looks of the vines we will probably do 2 or maybe even 3 more batches this season.

The summer squash is coming in great and the peppers are doing well also. We got the tomatoes in late but they are starting with some really nice sun sugar cherry tomatoes. In all we grew 7 types of cherry tomatoes including red, yellow, orange, white, black and others. The brandywine tomatoes are big but still green.

The peppers are getting big but the walls are still a bit thin. We fried some but for good eating they need to have thicker walls. Hopefully they will beef up in the next week or so.

Picking blueberries and garden vegetables. is a post from: Old hat, zone 4, cold climate garden blog.

I remember back when I was first exposed to this type of pickle, in my mothers canning cupboard.  I was a little confused by the presents of many things that I did not consider to be pickle.  Of course the cucumber was identifiable but why were there onions in there and what are those little round things and other strange looking ( to me ) things that settled to the bottom of the jar?

Since in those days, I did not pay much attention to my mothers canning, there was no way for me to know about the various spices and vegetables that were combined to give the bread and butter pickle its sweet and spicy flavor.

Fast forward to 2004 and we were getting ready to plant our first official garden at our new place.  As the seeds began to arrive in March we noticed a pack of cucumbers that we did not order.  I believe it was from Park Seeds.  It was called the Eureka Cucumber and we were not sure we wanted to plant them.  They looked a bit squat and stubby and not like a pealing cucumber at all.  But waste not want not, we started some and set them out to grow on the stick fence that surrounds the asparagus garden.  We put a few more of them in the row gardens with no staking.

The weather that year was a bit wet to begin with but they did well.  We were really surprised at how fast they went from fingerling to full blown cukes.  That is if you can call a 6″ by 2″ or 3″ cuke full blown.  We sliced up a few and they were OK for eating but the trouble was they were coming in by the peck each day.  We put some on the stand and they sold but we had many more than we could possibly deal with.

Since they were billed as a dual use cuke, for pickles and slicing, we decided to put some up.  The fruits were rather fleshy with medium sized seeds and they would become fat and yellow in a day if we did not pick them in time.  So we continued to picked them and kept them cool.

We decided to make both bread and butter and dill pickles but in the end we made 2 versions of the bread and butter and one of the dills.  As it turned out they worked perfect for the former and not so hot for the latter.  The problem with the dills is they were soft and opaque, and not to my liking.  The kids on the other hand made short work of the dills.

We found the recipes at http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/DJ1090.html which as the URL suggests is the Minnesota cooperative extension web site.  We use them a lot since their climate is similar to ours.

Our favorites were the spicy bread and butter pickle.  We omitted the liming process and they were fine.  The trick is to get them just as they are ripe, because if you wait a day more they become soft and not so good.

We have run out of pickles and we went to the store to see what was available.  We were very disappointed when we found every version of bread and butter pickle had high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. Except for one and that one had Splenda.  This is a perfect example of why it is far better to put up your own.  I am ordering the seeds this week.

Bread and butter pickles is a post from: Old hat, zone 4, cold climate garden blog.

In most cases we will call for fresh ingredients but we will also try to give substitutions where we can.

This recipe is for tomato or marinara sauce.   We started using this after realizing the caned or jar sauce contained too many things like corn syrup.  With a little tinkering this can be altered to fit almost any situation. If it wants to be smooth like pizza sauce put it in the blender.  We prefer to make it chunky for pasta and there is no reason this would not work equally well for pizza.

Use fresh tomatoes or canned.  If you use fresh you may need to cook it a bit longer depending on the amount of liquid in the tomatoes.  Mix up a few different types and colors for interesting flavors and a dramatic presentation.

OK here is what you need.  Add or subtract to suite taste.  For a larger quantity simply increase the ingredients in an equal ratio.

• 2 cups of diced tomatoes, with about 1/2 cup juice.  Substitute  1 large can.
• 1 small can ( 6 oz ) tomato paste.  Best to use a brand with no additives or spices.
• 1 large onion.
• 6 cloves garlic
• Fresh basil to taste
• Fresh Greek oregano to taste
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• Turbinado sugar to taste ( start with one teaspoon ) Substitute table or brown.
• Optional: Dried or fresh hot red pepper.  To taste.

1. Dice the onion and mince the garlic.  Put the onion and olive oil into stainless steel pot and cook on medium flame until the onions begin to turn translucent.  Don’t add garlic yet.
2. Add the tomato paste and continue to cook over medium flame, stirring the paste constantly while it fries for about 1 minutes.
3. Now add garlic and fry for another minute.  Do not burn the garlic.  You could also substitute roasted garlic later in the recipe.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir to combine completely.  Reduce the heat to low and let the sauce cook down to thicken for at least 5 minutes or more to desired thickness.
5. Now add minced herbs, vinegar and sugar, salt and pepper to taste.  Adjust the sugar, salt, black pepper and red pepper. Reduce to final thickness.

Unused portions can be kept in the icebox for a week at the most.  Better to freeze it for use later.

To freeze portion try oiling cupcake tins with olive oil on a paper towel or spray oil.  Ladle the sauce into the tins and freeze.  Now put the frozen tomato pucks into a larger zip lock bag and keep in the freezer.

Options could include bell peppers, meat, wine or whatever.

This really is worth the small effort for a really great marinara sauce.

I made this video a while ago and decided to include it on this blog.

Quick marinara tomato sauce recipe is a post from: Old hat, zone 4, cold climate garden blog.