Canning Pickles

It's canning season and I thought I'd share my favorite dill pickle recipe. It was my moms and my grandmas and I'm sure my great-grandmas...and so on!!

I planted pickling cukes this year, but don't really have enough so I got a box of them at my local farm, where I get them every year. Unfortunately you have to take what they give you, so my cukes are a little bigger than I like.

First order of business...clean 'em up!! I take a scrub brush to each one and clean them really well. This also gets the little "pricklies" off too!

I cut off each end and then with scientific preciseness, prick each cuke 3 - 4 times with a corn skewer!!! I've never seen this in a recipe, but my mama did it and so do I!!!! If you have a 16 year old sitting around doing nothing (which is what 16 year olds do), you can have him do the piercing. WARNING: He will protest!!! Ignore him and put him to work!!!!
Fill your clean jars with a big sprig or two of dill, a sliced clove of garlic and then carefully pack your jars, quite tightly, with cukes.

Ladle your hot brine over the cukes, get out any air bubbles, seal and water bath for 7 minutes.

Right after you take them out of the canner, they look a little cloudy...

But a few days later the cukes have soaked up the brine, and are starting to look like pickles!!! Let them sit for a month or so to really take on the flavor.

Put them in front of your cute, old toy stove, accessorized with American Girl canning goodies and post to your blog!!!!


DILL PICKLES

Wash and scrub cucumbers. Cut off bottoms and tops and pierce with a fork or corn skewer 3- 4 times each.

In clean, wide-mouth quart jars place:

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 - 2 sprigs of dill

Pack cukes tightly in jars, leaving about 1" head space

Brine:

3 C vinegar

9 C water

3/4 C salt

Bring to a boil and boil until salt is dissolved.

Pour brine over cucumbers, remove air bubbles and seal.

Process in a water bath for 7 minutes.

This recipe makes 7 quarts. If I have any brine left over I just add dill and garlic to a jar, slice up a few cukes, pour on the brine and let it sit in the fridge...very tasty!! and you can add to the jar as you use up the cukes.

Don't forget to let the processed pickles sit for a month to absorb the flavor. I like to refrigerate mine before using as they are a little crisper when cold.

Enjoy!!

The Garden

I am loving my garden right now....so pretty and giving me such yummy goodies. I am amazed at God' creation. The way he takes a tiny, shriveled up seed and creates such bounty with it!

I have so many volunteer sunflowers and pumpkins...I just can't stand to pull them out, so I let them grow willy-nilly all over my garden!
I got this great wheelbarrow at a garage sale last week...$5.00!!!! Love the metal wheel!!!!

Dill...also growing voluntarily all over my garden!!

Lots and lots of broccoli...been freezing that!

I love to grow cabbage, but don't do much with it!! The purple is my favorite!!

My beans are finally starting to get some blossoms...very slow this year.

My mailbox that I keep yard tools in...sometimes my rhubarb leaves me a note...

I pickled lots of cauliflower...so yummy!!! Eating beets, summer squash, zucchini, peas and lots of blueberries, but not from my bushes. I love to walk through every evening and look for goodies. I love to put up produce, but I'm not fanatical about using up everything. Just like to have it and to give it away!!!

Can't wait for pumpkins!!!!

Birthdays and Friendships

Another beautiful weekend here in the Pacific Northwest!!!

Thursday was dearest friend Lynda's birthday so she, Terry and I headed down to Snohomish for a few hours of fun and birthday gifts!!!!
My photography was lacking...I only took four pictures!! But I loved all the old washers set up outside the businesses, full of flowers!!!

Love this one...never seen a washer like that before!
And here is the birthday girl herself, outside our favorite store, The Speckled Hen. (How does one remove the reflective things in the picture???) Isn't she adorable??? Happy Birthday Betty dear!!!

The next night, we headed down to Woodinville with our friends, Perry and Linda, to the Chateau St. Michelle winery for a summer concert. Jackson Browne is a favorite of my husbands. I must admit, that I wasn't too keen on this concert as I've been to a few of the oldies down there and they just don't do much for me! I wanted to go the night before and hear Martina!!!

But I put on my big girl pants and went along...took my ipod just in case!!! I wish I would have taken more pictures. We went to a special reception before hand and the food was amazing, the grounds beautiful! You get a free wine glass when you come in and then free wine the rest of the night. My first glass lasts me all night, because I don't drink much, but I do love the glasses!!!

You're not supposed to take pictures (or have a camera with you) so I had to do some smuggling!!!

They had a big tent set up with lots of cheeses, crackers and a bounty of desserts (and more wine) which we visited more than once!!!

And can I just say what a wonderful concert this was???? He was truly great!!! Lots of ballads and acoustical pieces, very mellow and fun.

I also didn't get a picture of the lady a few rows in front of us who was doing interpretive dancing to Every Song he Sang!!!! It was quite entertaining!!

If I knew how to photo shop my arm would NOT be in the picture!!!!

A beautiful night with great friends!!!!

This and That...

I have been noticeably absent from blogging...not reading, just posting. I do apologize, but you all write such wonderful stuff, that after I peruse everyone else's blogs, I realize that I have nothing of substance to say!!!!

So today, I'll just catch you up on some things, hope you enjoy it and come back again when my brain re-engages!!!

I won a nice Amy Butler bag from my friend Melanie over at Handful of Daisies. I know she has a new name, but you can access her on my side bar under her old name. Thanks Melanie...too cute!!

We were watching TV the other night and kept hearing a whooshing sound. We realized it was a hot air balloon and went outside to investigate.

Right above the house, they were!!!
The chase cars came down our street, but the balloon was landing in the field behind us and they couldn't get to them in time!!! The balloon had to take off again and find a new spot!

When I was growing up, my neighbor, Carlotta, had a hot air balloon and I was able to crew for her on a number of occasions. It was so fun!!! Being up in the air like that, no noise, a gorgeous view...utterly amazing! If you ever get the chance, go for a ride!!

I've been quite busy in the garden as of late. You wait and wait for things to ripen and then it seems to happen all at once!!!

I had 9 cauliflower in my fridge at one time!!!! We've had lots fresh and I also picked some...turned out amazingly!!!! (is that a word?)!! Lots of beets, a few (soon to be many) zucchini, broccoli, lettuce, dill a few green peppers and last night, my first potatoes!!!! I marvel at how God can take a wrinkled, eyed potato and produce such an abundance of smooth-skinned, tender, new, red potatoes in it's place! Amazing!!!!

My raspberries are producing! and producing! and producing!!!!!! I don't know how many bags I've put up!!! I've given many away, eaten tons, and yes, thrown away quite a few too!!! These are some that I'd frozen, waiting to be put into bags.

Yesterday we picked 30 pounds of blueberries in 45 minutes!! They are so good, and as you can see,,,sooooo BIG!!!!!!

Six cookie sheets full, plus a huge bowl just to eat!!! If you live near Lynden and need a great place to go, let me know and I'll send you the information!!

Miss Abby continues to entertain us!!! She is a hoot to watch and play with! I went to get a Kleenex last night and found someone asleep down in the box!!!! Of course, she wanted her picture taken too!!

It's been a very difficult 2 weeks with some serious family issues. I don't know why I always thought we'd be spared of some of these things, but naively I did. Satan loves to attack believers and he is trying to get a foot hold in our family right now. I continue to cling to the cross and the promises of my Saviour. He will never leave me nor forsake me, but that doesn't mean I won't go through trials. These are doozies!!!


I've found some amazing verses in my reading lately.

Psalm 42:2

I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God.

I'm thirsty for God-alive.

I wonder,"Will I ever make it-...

I'm on a diet of tears-

tears for breakfast, tears for supper.

All day long.....

And then I read Psalm 43:5

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?

Why are you crying the blues?

Fix my eyes on God-

soon I'll be praising again.

He puts a smile on my face!!!!!

He's my GOD.

When I weep, it's for many things, but often selfishness, because I can't see God's plan in everythng, but I KNOW that He works for GOOD, even if bad things must take place for the good to shine through. But God is MY God, He loves me more than I can fathom and more than anything, He wants me to turn EVERYTHING in my life over to Him. It's so Hard!!!!! Please lift my family in your prayers, and thank you to all who have been praying...I really can feel His presence through all of you!

Blessings to all of you...I'll try to post more often, maybe even something interesting!!!!! No promises though!!!

The Summer Job

In case you were wondering, Lynden is one of the largest raspberry producing areas in the world, and the largest in the United States. Last year alone, Washington harvested over 65 million pounds!!! We also grow strawberries and blueberries, but the raspberries are the heart and soul!!

Tyler has been fortunate enough to have had a steady job with DeVrie's berries for the last 3 years, the last two, driving a raspberry picker. His sister also had this job and kindly passed it on to her brother!!!

Tyler has informed me that this is "his" picker!! As you can see it has a nice roll back roof for those warmer days when he wants to work on his tan! His crew isn't as lucky...their roof is stationary!

As you can see, this is a very large machine, made by Korvan (now Oxbo) here in Lynden.

I think I forgot to mention how much he LOVEs it when I come out and take his picture...doesn't he look Happy???!!!

Driving from one row to the next.

Now, while there is a great deal of skill required, once he's lined up on a row, he engages the auto-steer and the picker drives itself. This is greatly appreciated on the longer rows since one can squeeze in a little cat-nap. The girls throw mushy berries at him before he gets to the end, just in case he needs waking up!!

Once he has a full load he heads to the flatbed truck to unload. Those bars underneath where he sits, vibrate as they go over the rows of berries, causing the ripe ones to fall off. They go to a conveyor belt where two girls sort out bad berries, leaves, frogs, birds, etc.!! Another girl holds the flat as it fills and another girl stacks the flats.

As he comes to the truck he is driving blind and has to rely on his sorters to let him know how close he is to the truck. So far so good!!!

Here are the lovely, "red" ladies getting ready to unload.

They unload quickly and the truck takes the berries to be unloaded in a refrigerated semi-truck. At the end of the day, the berries head to the processing plant.

Building lots of muscle here!

Six days a week, 11 to 12 hour days for about six weeks. It's not glamorous, but it's a great job and gives a lot of kids a chance to earn good money over the summer.

Oh yea, I can go pick some for myself anytime!!!!

Thanks Barb and Wayne!!

Delayed 4th of July and a New Family Member

Let me start this post by introducing you to Abby. Isn't she cute????


I don't know if I've mentioned how abysmal the garage sales have been here in Lynden...really, really awful, but that's another story! Anyway, last Saturday as I was "saling" I went to a house that had a free kitty. Unfortunately I dared to look, hold and snuggle and despite the phone call to my hubby asking if I should take her (he said "no") I asked if I could take her on a 30 minute trial basis!!! (the garage sales are bad, but Lynden people are the best!) So home we went and home she stayed!!We were worried that our other cat, Jackson, wouldn't like her, but he was quite enthralled, snuggling with her, licking her and following her around. They napped in the garden for a few hours, cute as can be!

We were having a family get-together down at the farm later that day, so of course she had to go with us! Tyler couldn't come so this is her in his pocket after he got off work!

Ashleigh was trying to figure out how to keep her, in her rented house! Aunt Meagan offered to keep her at her house!

My nephew thought that would be okay!

Brian's parents have a place on the Stillaguamish River near Arlington, so we all got together for a day of food, games and visiting.

Brad and Shelly (B's brother and sister) don't look too thrilled to see me with the camera!

This is my SIL Meagan, with a cousin, Mary, whom we'd never met. Mary is an artist and she and Meagan had a lot to talk about. She was such a dear! She took us out to her little studio and showed us all her work. Very talented, she is!

This is her husband, Gene, Brian's dad, Ron and Mary. They have lot's one house apart from each other. Gene and Mary are in their early eighties and look so good!!! So does my handsome FIL! He'll be 75 next month. I wish I looked that good now!!!

Playing in the river with the dogs, BJ and Harley

Many games of Cornholes later....

A little bit of whiffle ball....

Lots of motorcycle riding, food, campfire, s'mores, etc!!!!

A fun day and by far the best weather we've had in days.





We woke up on the 4th to 50 degree weather!! It was soo cold!!!!! Windy, grey skies, cold...it wasn't looking good for our BBQ at the Shindruks, but by 5:30 it was a little warmer...maybe 60!

This little guy didn't seem to mind, as long as the crackers and dip were nearby!! His name eludes me at this moment , but sooo cute!!! He came from Korea at 10 months, and is 21 months now. Love his All-American outfit!

The coats and sweatshirts give testimony to the weather-the goofy guys in shorts don't count!!! Swimming (in the heated pool), bocce ball, a nice campfire and lots of fireworks made for a fun day...oh yea, and the food, the best part, aside from being with friends!!

It started warming up around 7:00 and the sun actually made an appearance!
Alexa made this cute table display! A reminder of the amazing country we live in! What a blessing!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!