What to do with all those CUCUMBERS... Get your Jars Ready...Here they come!

Get ready... they are growing like crazy!

It's hard to keep up with all the cucumbers as they grow on the vine. We have to go out every day, once the cucumbers make their appearance on the vines and pick and process them every way we know how.

Mostly, we make dill pickles and use the rest for salads and creamed cucumbers.

That's the Way the Garden Goes...

Isn't it a shame that we can't harvest cucumbers all throughout the summer and into the fall. When they are here, they are here and we have to do whatever needs to be done with them. Here are a few recipes for... "What to do with all those Cucumbers."

Creamed Cucumbers Recipe

4 Med. Cucumbers - Cleaned, Peeled and Sliced thinly (1 Med. Cucumber Per Person)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

2 Tablespoons Fresh Chopped Dill

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Mix all ingredients together and chill for at least 1 Hour.

Fresh Dill Pickles Recipe

6-8 small cucumbers, 2 1/2 - 3 inches in size (or kirby cucumbers) per pint. Double for Quart size, or as many as you can fit into your jars.

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt for pint size or 1 teaspoon for Quart size.

2-3 peeled and crushed cloves of garlic for pint size jar or 3-6 cloves for Quart size jar.

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (DO NOT USE DRIED DILL)

Filtered water to fill packed jars.

Wash and dry the cucumbers. Poke holes all over the cucumbers with a fork. Just do tiny pricks. No need to push the fork in deeply. Chop the cleaned dill. Peel and crush the garlic.

In a clean jar add the garlic and dill. Put as many cucumbers in the jar that you can fit without crushing the cucumbers and add the salt.

Fill the jar with filtered water, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch head space. Put the lid on and shake the jar until the salt is mixed well. Take the lid off and turn the lid upside down with a small area of the water showing. Leave the jar (or jars) on your counter or out of the sun light for a few days. As soon as the water looks cloudy screw the lid on and be sure to refrigerator the jars. They will last for two weeks in the refrigerator.

Cheater Dill Pickles Recipe

If we happen to have a container of store bought pickles and the garden is overflowing with vine ready cucumbers we wash a few cucumbers, give them a few pokes with a fork, add fresh garlic, dill, a little salt and then shove them in the jar with the other pickles. Fill with filtered water, then put the container back in the refrigerator and in a few days we have more pickles.

Until we meet again... Francesca27