Small Batches

                The season of small batches is upon us. Because we have a kitchen garden, not a production plot, the harvest comes in waves the size of baskets, not buckets. One day, there are no cucumbers, the next, there are eight. The paste tomatoes produce a big yellow bowl of ripe fruits once a week. Blackberries, in the band between the chickens and the jays, ripen at about eating rate. In a few weeks, I will pull in the two beds of potatoes in one afternoon, but that will be, by far, the largest one day haul of the year.

                I preserve in small, daily batches, not huge, all day affairs. One morning, I will quarter all of the tomatoes and drop them into the crock-pot to cook down during the day. The smell of cooking tomatoes wafts out of the dining room for hours, then I jar them up and can them after dinner. The next, we will smell apple butter.  Another day, I dump blueberries onto the drying racks before I go to bed so that they are done in the morning. When the cucumbers pile up, I make a batch of pickles, chopping and soaking in the morning, brining and canning in the evening.  Using a steam canner, I can easily process one batch—even just a few jars of jam-- without boiling gallons of water for an hour.

                The shelves fill up slowly. In mid-July, there are boxes of empty jars and the rings hang from their strings and whack into my head when I pick up a jar of juice for breakfast. But, by late September, they will be full, ready for winter eating, without  huge hot labor on my part.

Senfgurken—from  The Joy of Pickling

5 pounds of ripe cucumbers—the ones that got away at the bottom of the vine

¼ c pickling salt

3 cider vinegar

1.5 c white sugar

1.5 T mustard seeds

1 T pickling spices

4-6 pint jars, prepped

Seed and chop the cucumbers.  (I do not peel.) Mix with the salt and let rest in a big bowl for 4-12 hours. Drain.

Take the vinegar, sugar, and spices and bring to a simmer. Add half the cucumbers and cook for a minute or two, just to wilt. Put fruit in jars and wilt the other half in the same manner.

Cover with brine, seal, and process in steam canner for ten minutes.