Harvesting Dill Seed

Yesterday, we harvested a bunch of dill seeds from mature / dried seed heads. A lot of stems came off with the seeds when we removed them from the plant. This would be fine and dandy if we were saving seeds to plant next year, but I might want to use these seeds to flavor food to eat.

How to separate the stems from the seeds? I decided to try my screen-mesh strainer. Just dumped everything into the strainer. Wiggled and jiggled and shook it over a large bowl. Hey! It worked! There are still a few stems stuck to some of the seeds, but the majority of the stems did fall through the mesh, leaving the seeds behind.

Staying cool as a cucumber...

... in the air conditioning, as we make refrigerator pickles. It's cucumber time!

It just wouldn't be summer without a pickle jar or two in the refrigerator. My little patch of cukes yielded enough today to make sweet pickles AND dill pickles. These pickles are easy to prepare and ready to eat in a few days. We love the crisp, fresh taste. For recipes / instructions, refer back to the June 18, 2016 blog post, "When life gives you cucumbers... make pickles!"

I was able to use fresh dill as well as fresh garlic, recently harvested from the garden. Bonus, some of the dill plants had dried perfectly to allow seed collection today.

My mom is visiting, and what a good help she is in the kitchen. She mixed pickling concoction, sliced cucumbers, and separated the dill seeds from the dried plants. What did I do, you might ask? I supervised, of course :-) Seriously, we have a good time working together to make deliciousness happen.

Let the summer feast begin!

Modest beginnings ... 3 cucumbers, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1st zucchini, lush basil in today's harvest. Plus, garlic already cured. Basil pesto on the menu tonight!

Summer Crops Begin!

first pickling cucumbers

squash in Bloom

developing tomatillos look like paper lanterns on the vine.

first sun-gold cherry tomatoes

Sugar Snaps and Garlic Scapes

The garden IS a bit overgrown, but peas and garlic certainly make a nice homecoming...

As it was ...

... before traveling. This garden will change a lot in the next three weeks. Counting on Mother Nature to take good care of things while we're away.

Lots of Lettuce

Rouse the Spouse planted two full beds of lettuce this past winter. That's a lot of lettuce!