Good morning or afternoon, if you’re here in my house, I would offer you something cold and icy because guess what, my neck of the woods is under another heat dome. The high is going to be 97-degrees-Fahrenheit again today (36-degree-Celsius). It’s the middle of August, aren’t we past the hottest part of summer?
I finally got enough cucumbers to make myself two jars of pickles yesterday. These aren’t ready yet. They have to ferment in the fridge for 2 days. I can’t wait to try them. It’s my first time making pickles and my brine consists of apple-cider vinegar, white vinegar, water, sea salt, sugar, black and white peppercorns, and dried thyme. I hope it comes out okay.
I finally had my first and second harvest of cucumbers this week. As of yesterday, I’ve harvested 5 (large) Marketmore 76 cucumbers and 7 (small) Sumter pickling cucumbers. I find I’m not liking the Marketmore 76 cucumbers – its skin is too prickly – while the skin of the Sumter pickling cucumbers has little bumps like the ones you find on the mini-pickles.
And let’s not forget this big guy – 3 pounds 12 ounces. That’s a big zucchini.
I actually procrastinated at picking this guy. I watched this guy grow for 3 days straight and kept telling myself, “Let’s wait one more day.” I need to stop doing that.
Meanwhile, my sweet peppers are doing fantastic in the 5-tier vertical tower. It looks like it likes it there. It’s been such a thrill watching it grow bigger everyday.
I wonder, is this what a mother feels like? Watching her baby grow bigger and bigger each day?
You might think I’m trying to make you jealous, showing off my garden but the truth is I’ve never had a thriving, successful garden like this, ever. So I’m just trying to document it for myself so I can look back in the future and see the fruits of my labor.
I better get going, got a Toastmaster club meeting to get to this morning. I would thank you for joining me in this edition of #weekendcoffeeshare and hope we’ll both return next week.
This is Another Story 
Your vegetables look great. Congratulations. I’ve made some pickles and they turned out good and easy to make.
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I think it’s absolutely wonderful that your garden is doing so great. We gardeners enjoy each others successes 😉
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I’m quite surprised myself and have been wondering if this is a dream or do I really have a thriving garden this year?
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You definitely have a garden!
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Mmm, pickles are delicious and I think your brine sounds just right. I feel for you about the heat. It can still get really hot here in August, but here in the Netherlands we haven’t haad that high temperatures this year.
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Yes, and the pickles came out perfect, just my level of acidity. It’s not normal to get this hot here but then the entire northwestern section of the US has been baking so why not make it the intermountain west as well.
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Your vegetables look great! I’m hosting the Sunday Stills photography challenge on August 22. The theme is ‘In the garden’. I hope you participate. The challenge runs the whole week, not just Sunday. Thank you for linking up with #weekendcoffeeshare.
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Thank you, I’ll try to participate.
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Wow! How awesome to have enough to save for later! Nice job.
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Thank you.
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What a beautiful bounty! I love pickling food. I’m currently pickling red onions and radishes.
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Ooh how fun!
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Hope it cools down soon for you, the peppers look great
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Thank you. It supposed to cool down on Wednesday. Crossing my fingers that happens.
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Super impressed with your garden! Everything looks so good.
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Thank you. 🙂
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Hi YingLan. I’ve never tried pickling myself but it sounds you have a good experiment in flight. make a note to come back and tell us how it worked out.
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Hi Gary, the pickles came out great. I began snacking on them began I even took a picture. I had to make another jar today because of the abundance of cucumbers. It’s so satisfying to finally quench my craving.
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🤜 💥 🤛
Well done YingLan!
Few satisfy certain urges line a great pickle 😋
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Thank you. Pickles is one of those foods my mom dislikes so I don’t get to have it often. So when I have the chance to have an abundance of pickles, I’m going to go for it. 😀
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Fabulous-looking garden! Our June heat wave killed off most of my vegetables, though a few of the tomatoes are making a comeback, and the basil is taking over.
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Oh no! That same heat wave killed my flowers. I’ll have to plant lots of new ones next year.
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What a beautiful garden harvest. I can almost taste those pickles. Been decades since I made my own. Hubby doesn’t eat them, so it’s only me. Just doesn’t seem reason enough to make a batch. It’s been triple digits here this week, which is very unusual for us. Our AC is sooo inadequate. Our upstairs with the AC set at 80 is up in the upper 90’s and we have fans set around there.
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It’s the same in my household – only I eat pickles. This temperature is unusual here too. The normal in August is upper 80’s. My upstairs is the same way – the hottest room in the house being my bedroom – I have to have the ceiling fan running all day plus another small personal AC unit running. Thank you for the chat and I hope the temperature cools down for you soon.
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Homemade pickles are so good. I haven’t attempted to make my own. How do you keep your vegetables safe from wildlife?
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That’s the best part. I don’t have any wildlife. They don’t usually come to my neighborhood. 😀
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