If you think we’ve been busy before, you should see us now! We’re expecting snow in about three weeks. Snow that’ll stay all winter long. So, guess what? We’ve got to be ready, and we still have tons of garden produce to process. Will took a day off tractor farming and shucked three bins of Who Gets Kissed sweet corn that our friends, Dara and Sherri, picked last Tuesday. I’m the official “corn roper,” which means I use recycled baler twine to tie up strings of corn to finish drying in the house. It helped to have him shuck it. My hands get pretty sore after a while. I got it all roped up and indoors. One year, I tried tying it up on our front porch. But the blue jays were helping themselves to it and we had to move it indoors. Now, we don’t trust them a bit. We had a super good crop of all our sweet corns this year, especially Simonet, Damaun, and Who Gets Kissed. There were plenty of big, fat cobs with lots of rows. That equals much more corn to eat and can up than many other varieties of corn, including many hybrids.
We had a nice, big, fat Early Polish watermelon, which we ate while Bill and his family were here. I had everyone save their seeds and their rind. Yesterday, I made watermelon rind sweet pickles. That’s just about our very favorite holiday treat. Who would think watermelon rinds would actually be good to eat? That pickle is sweet, crunchy and spicy with cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. (The recipe is in my book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food, if you’re interested in giving it a try. I have a bit more syrup left from it, and we also have more watermelons on the porch. More pickles are in the forecast!
Today, I’m making Chicago style giardiniera, a chopped mix of hot peppers, carrots, onions, cauliflower, and sweet peppers along with sliced green olives, etc. Our friend, Sherri, made it last year and brought us a half pint to try. It was very good. I hope mine turns out as good as hers is. We like different recipes to use bits of our garden’s harvest, and this one is a big hit.
Please continue to pray for the folks in Florida, as the hurricane bears down on them. That’s so scary, especially right after Hurricane Helene hit. — Jackie
