Pickling

One of the best things about living with some property is growing our own food. When we lived in the city in Seattle we had a small 4,000 square foot lot. We tried to find a balance between lawn for the kids and growing our own food, not really succeeding at either. To maximize our lot we planted tomato plants in the front yard, apple trees in the sidewalk strip (which every passerby helped themselves to), and blueberry bushes around the yard. It was something and we were proud of our efforts, but living with more land and possibilities has opened up an entire world of satisfaction.

This year we planted potatoes, apple and pear trees, blueberries, tomatoes on the vine, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, garlic, lettuce, spinach, kale, artichokes, asparagus, and herbs. I am certain we planted a few zucchini plants but the kids seemed to have dug them up~never to be seen again.

Yesterday we canned pickles and here are some pictures from our bounty!

The Bread and Butter Pickles
6 large cucumbers, sliced (we used small pickling cucumbers instead)
4 onions, sliced
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 pint white vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed

Use fresh cucumbers; wash and slice. Slice onions. Mix vegetables with salt and let stand 1 hour.

Drain and rinse with 2 cups of cold water. Combine vinegar, sugar, celery and mustard seeds and heat to boiling for three minutes.

Pack vegetables into jars, add hot vinegar mixture, leaving 1/4" headspace. Seal at once and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Ready to eat in 3-4 weeks. Keeps up to 1 year. Makes about 6 pints.

Gardening

Today's Vegetables Are Lower in Nutrients

August 11, 2011 at 9:00AM by Justine Sterling | Comment


Ah, the good old days. When men were men, women were women, and vegetables were vegetables. Although they may be bigger than they were 60 years ago, research has found that vegetables are significantly less nutritious than they used to be.

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Little research has been done on the matter, but the studies that have concentrated on the issue of diminishing nutrition in vegetables have found that since 1950 there have been notable changes, reports The Grist. One of the studies, conducted by Donald Davis, a now-retired scientist from the University of Texas at Austin, found that over the years vegetables have lost significant amounts of key nutrients. For example, according to Grist's infographic, which depicts how different vegetables have depleted in nutritional value from 1950-1999, tomatoes have decreased 55% in calcium, 25% in iron, and 17% in ascorbic acid (a type of vitamin C).

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Although there is no definitive explanation, Davis believes that selective breeding is to blame. Over the last 50 years, researchers and growers have successfully developed crops that yield a high amount of produce. When studies compared these high-yield varieties to non-high-yield varieties grown in the same soil, researchers found that the low-yield samples contained higher nutrient contents. That's because plants extract nutrients from the stalk to create produce. The bigger and more plentiful the vegetable, the less nutrients there are to go around.

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To get vegetables like those from the good old days, Davis suggests choosing heirloom and non-hybrid varieties. Anecdotal evidence shows that these types of vegetables are not only more nutritious than their mass-produced counterparts, but they are also tastier. Anyone who has compared a store-bought plum tomato to an heirloom plucked fresh from the vine can attest to that. In that same vein, you have a better chance of finding these low-yield vegetables if you buy seasonally. To inspire your next trip to the farmers market, here's some great seasonal summer recipes.