Pickle This, Baby

Today was all about pickles. Well, not all about but a lot of my day was taken up with them. First thing I had to do was drain my crock of sweet pickles in process, rinse the cucumbers, clean the crock, put the cucumbers back in the crock, boil a new brine, and pour that over the vegetables in the crock. 
Now I'm going to tell you something you probably do not want to hear. However, the truth of the matter is, when you brine cucumbers (and probably other things too), you're going to get some scum action. I'm not exactly sure what the scum is made of but it's just part of the process and you get rid of it and there you go. There will be no scum in the finished pickle process. 
But it is sort of gross to think about. 
In three more days I'll be doing that whole routine again and after that, the part where the sugar and spices come in will begin. If I sold these pickles I think I'd charge about fifty dollars a pint. 

The pickles I made today were dilly beans and that is a very time-consuming activity too. It probably took me almost three hours to make those seven pints of beans, not counting the picking, and you know what? I don't think I used enough dill seed in them. Every year I sort of use a recipe to get that basic proportions of salt and vinegar and water correct and then I add the spices in a sort of intuitive manner. Most of the recipes call for fresh dill which I do not have so I always use dill seed and I'm pretty sure that this year, I didn't add nearly enough of that. I made the mistake of looking up what the equivalent to a dill sprig was in dill seed and I believe it lied.
BAH! 

Here's another thing. Remember how, when I was pressure canning beans one of the lids buckled and I blamed the fact that I'd opened the lid too early? Well, another lid buckled on me today and I was using a completely different method of canning involving not pressure but just boiling water. 

In all my years of canning I've never had this happen until this year and the only difference I can see is that I am using a different kind of canning lid and ring. The brand, as you can see, is "Pur." I've always, always used Ball brand lids but when covid happened and everyone got all pioneery-y, canning supplies ran out and Pur stepped in to fill the void. 
This does not give me much confidence in the Pur brand. 

Oh well. I'll put that jar in the refrigerator and we'll go ahead and eat those first. At least I'll be able to see if the beans are fit to eat. 

I am sure y'all are fascinated by all of this canning blah, blah, blah. 

But that's what I did today. And after I was finished, the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off in it but I've got everything cleaned and tidied up now and that is a very good feeling. 

I also took the trash today and did some laundry and did a few cleaning chores so it wasn't quite ALL about pickling. I picked a few cucumbers. I pick cucumbers every day. EVERY DAY and no matter how hard I try to get all of the ones that seem big enough to pick, I always go back the next day to find a few that look like this. 

Yes. I know. Go ahead and make jokes. I do. In fact I told Jessie today when we were discussing this phenomena that something must be going on in that garden to get those cucumbers excited. 
God, I'm funny. 

Jessie was here because she'd brought the boys out to stay for a little while when she had an appointment. When they walked in, Levon said, "It's been nine thousand years!" 
"Since you were here?" I asked. 
"YES!" he said. Of course they were here two days ago and therein lies that joke. I guess he's inherited my comic gene. The other day he told me that he can be the best kid in the world or the worst kid in the world or a medium kid and which kid would I like him to be?
I told him that I just wanted him to be Levon, whatever that meant. 
"That's the medium kid," he said. 

We've gotten some rain. Not a whole lot but enough to cool things off and make everything green up again. And to excite the frogs who always have to sing about it when water falls from the sky. 

I'm going to go all-out crazy tonight and cook some pork chops and sweet potatoes. I doubt I'll eat anywhere near all of that. I just had a very delicious snack of cottage cheese with mango and I would like to say right here and now that the mango is the best fruit. In my opinion, there is no fruit that can compete with the mango. Mangoes are the most popular fruit in heaven. I feel certain about this. The pineapple, if there were no mangoes, might be the best but there ARE mangos and that's that. Before I started taking Zepbound, I had hardly eaten any fruit in a very long time. Fruits like apples and grapes had taken on a new taste to me that was unpleasant and I just didn't even really care to eat any other fruit, either. I mean, the occasional banana with peanut butter on it was okay. Canned mandarin oranges in salad was quite enjoyable. And I still have no desire to eat an apple or a grape but at the moment I have mangoes, pineapple, watermelon, and blueberries in the refrigerator. And I am eating them. And I am loving them. I find this both amusing and amazing. 

Mr. Moon just brought me another magnolia blossom. 
Sigh. 
He is a wonderful sweetheart. Even if he did buy a log cabin. 

More tomorrow of the Saga of Life, Love, and Food Preservation in Lloyd. 

Yours Truly...Ms. Moon