{"id":2982,"date":"2019-08-17T10:37:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T17:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muddyvalleyfarm.com\/?p=2982"},"modified":"2019-08-17T10:37:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T17:37:03","slug":"invasion-of-the-cucumbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/?p=2982","title":{"rendered":"Invasion of the Cucumbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our resident gardener planted lots of pickling cukes this year, and they all grew. We \u00a0are absolutely inundated! Every few days, the garden disgorges another big basketful, as RG discovers another plant twining along in some random corner. The enthusiastic tone of her \u201cI found another patch\u201d announcements has steadily diminished over time. One can only use so many pickling cukes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2985\" src=\"https:\/\/muddyvalleyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/d8eca2a1-ec8b-438b-bcd7-5540f0e5146e.jpeg?w=292\" alt=\"D8ECA2A1-EC8B-438B-BCD7-5540F0E5146E\" width=\"146\" height=\"300\" \/>Mason jars full of fermenting salt brine pickles are stacked all over my sewing table, friends and family are sharing in the bounty and the chickens are enjoying the ones that grew too big to pickle before they were located. And they Just. Keep. Coming.<\/p>\n<p>Last night, in an attempt to gain the upper hand over the cucumber avalanche, RG gathered up every cuke on hand and came next door to use our big kitchen. It was time to scale up she decided, and make a whole crock full of pickles. After a bit of thought, we pulled out our tall glass kombucha vessel. It would do quite well. We have lots of big pots, but metal won\u2019t work for making pickles. She scrubbed the kombucha vessel thoroughly and filled it with a big batch of pickles, topped and bottomed with fresh grape leaves for tannin (to keep \u2018em crispy).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2986\" src=\"https:\/\/muddyvalleyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/39bba314-f917-4317-8d03-c7fcd405d6f8.jpeg\" alt=\"39BBA314-F917-4317-8D03-C7FCD405D6F8\" width=\"2048\" height=\"996\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ten days or so on the counter, then into jars and the fridge, and we\u2019ll have healthy fermented probiotic pickles and pickle juice good for up to a year, if they last that long (they won\u2019t). In the meantime I am enjoying the beautiful pickle tower decorating my kitchen, glinting green on the counter, filled with quiet purpose as a billion friendly bacteria do their job. Tiny bubbles forming and shifting as the fermenting process unfolds.<\/p>\n<p>One of my cousins has been crazy about pickles his whole life. A true pickle connoisseur, he makes his own, he wins pickling prizes at the fair; the man even owns a pickle suit. \u00a0If anyone can appreciate a good pickle, it\u2019s cousin D. I will have to make sure he gets a jar. Especially since RG is already boasting about how her pickles are probably better than his. Are we on the verge of a pickle smackdown? Only time will tell&#8230;\ud83d\ude18<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2987\" src=\"https:\/\/muddyvalleyfarm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/b00b7424-438d-42f1-a8b6-55ac202d291c.jpeg\" alt=\"B00B7424-438D-42F1-A8B6-55AC202D291C\" width=\"996\" height=\"2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our resident gardener planted lots of pickling cukes this year,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22,24,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-farm-life","category-farm-produce","category-gardening","category-preserving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestablecomicstore.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}