Sweet pickle relish topping Sweet pickle relish combines cucumbers, green or red bell peppers, and onions from the summer garden. This is the classic relish to enjoy on hot dogs and hamburgers. Half-pint jars are probably the right size for canning sweet pickle relish. Once opened you’ll want to keep this relish refrigerated and use
Dill pickles from cucumbers and dill sprigs You can turn cucumbers into pickles in about 40 minutes. It’s not difficult. My favorite pickling cucumbers are County Fair, National Pickling, Pickle Bush, Regal, and Saladin. Pickling cucumbers are short–4 inches is about the right length–and compact with tender skins. Longer, larger cucumbers such as Marketmore and
Canning peaches is simple. You will need just ripe peaches that are not soft or mushy, and you will need about 45 minutes of preparation time and about 25 minutes of processing time. Peaches are easily prepared for canning in a hot-water bath canner. You will need about 17½ pounds of peaches for each canner
Blackberry ice cream The best ice cream is simply frozen custard. Egg yolks and cream make a very smooth, rich ice cream. You can make ice cream without egg yolks and cream but then it wouldn’t be a sin; it would be frozen milk. Here’s a tip: make just enough custardy ice cream to serve
Cucumber soup is a delicious summer soup served chilled. It’s cooling, light, and quiet. There is a simple way to make cucumber soup, here it is: whirl two peeled medium cucumbers and an 7- or 8-ounce container of plain yogurt in the blender until smooth; add salt and pepper to taste; chill until cold and
Hoop tunnel with dark shadecloth and plant blanket to shade crops. A hoop tunnel can create instant shade to protect leafy greens and other cool-season vegetables from intense summer sun. Cover half hoops made of PVC pipe, stiff wire, or construction- or chicken-wire with shadecloth or light horticultural cloth to keep leafy crops from sun-burning.
Plum jam Plums jam is easy to make; all you need is fresh, ripe plums, sugar and a bit of lemon juice. From start to finish, you will have plum jam in less than an hour. Plums are a diverse lot; they range in color from green to yellow to red to purple to blue
Root suckers from spring-planted tomatoes to start new plants for fall harvest. Plant tomatoes for fall harvest in mid- to late-summer in regions where frost does not come until very late autumn or early winter. Use suckers cut from spring-planted tomatoes to start new plants. A sucker is 4 to 5 inches of new growth
Herb flavored vinegar can be made with lemon thyme. Add herbs to wine or cider vinegar to make herb-flavored vinegar. Basil, chervil, chives, dill, garlic, marjoram, mint, rosemary, sage, and tarragon are ten common herbs well-suited for making flavored vinegars. Use herb-flavored vinegars in salad dressings, marinades, for flavoring soups, or in any almost any
Black garden fabric attracts solar heat to warm the soil and will keep melons and squash off the soil and away from disease. Melons, squash, and cucumbers grow best where the summer is hot, dry, and almost always sunny. The best flavored of these gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) crops will come from the hottest growing regions.
