Burpless is Bad!

My garden is still going. The squash is on hiatus, the carrots are just weird and the okra is just getting started. So I did some Googling (be proud, Mom and JD and others to whom the answer is always "Did you Google it?") and found a great site that tells you how to can, preserve and anything else you want to do to produce. So I have great plans for my okra and tomatoes (which are all humongous and STILL green). I DID have great plans for my CUCUMBERS, but...sigh. Sigh. SIGH.


http://www.pickyourown.org/allaboutcanning.htm
"Burpless cucumbers are not recommended for use in fermented pickles. This is because at their normal mature size, they produce an enzyme that causes the pickles to soften during fermentation." Mushy pickles? Ewwwwwww.
When asking certain knowledgeable persons about which seeds to buy for my garden, I was advised repeatedly to get "Burpless Cucumbers." So I got them. A lot. And now I can't even can them!!! So we are giving them away. If you are close enough, you can come and Pick Your Own. Please. I shudder to think that I might have to BUY the canning cucumbers to make into pickles. But I may.

First, however, I am going to go for pickled okra. I am going to try a half batch first to see if it worked out (and because I don't have 7 lb of okra ready yet, all at the same time).

Happy for me, I have connections in town. The mayor's mama. She knows all about canning because she did it for years. Now she is a retired canner/gardener and gets her produce from industrial people with big gardens and too many of the wrong kind of cucumber. And her best friend, Millie the Mailperson, has a garden so big she bought a brush hog to till it with. So MoMo doesn't need a garden unless she needs a tomato or two to grow for fun. She has all the canning stuff and know-how, so she's letting me borrow a big vat to make the brine and her canner. She will also be available for assistance when (not if) I call her about how long to boil the lids and is the brine supposed to look/smell/fume like that?

I will be faithful to my readers (all 4 of you are great) and report any and all successes and mishaps. It will be Friday before I go to MoMo's house to get the canner because she invited the kids and I over for her family 4th get together + fireworks. We really love MoMo. She makes us feel good (and she laughs at my lame jokes. Kindred spirit).

We stopped at the fireworks stand today too and got some kiddy type fireworks for Chris and Ian to do together. Ian is really getting into the fireworks, since he had so much fun last year. This year he might even get off of my lap. His favorites are the poppers (sometimes they don't go off and snap. He doesn't always throw it down hard enough, so you learn very quickly not to go barefoot on the driveway unless you want to step on a 'live' one), the smoke balls (pretty!) and the really silly pointless ones shaped like boats, tractors, motorcycles etc that crackle and smoke and don't do much else but cost more. The upside is that when they're finished hissing and smoking, Ian plays with the charred remains until they completely disintegrate. Erin doesn't really care right now. She just likes to be outside and watch Ian have conniptions. He's funny that way.
My favorite are the ladybugs. We got 3. Woo hoo!

Oh, and Ian REALLY likes the parachute ones. We got a daytime one and a nighttime one. We did the daytime one this afternoon and this time, we caught the parachute! Last year it narrowly missed the powerline and got caught in the neighbor's tree. It is gone now, so I assume some industrious squirrel is saving it for emergencies. Or for his Tarzan routine.
But it's so hard to believe that it's July already. Three weeks until my babies' birthdays. Sigh!!

At least they like cucumbers. For now. And just in case you wanted a closer look at that carrot, there you are. I think our garden plot used to be radioactive or something. We have yet to get Just One.


Ian thinks these are hilarious. He still laughs every time he sees the picture. boys.