The last few days have been very productive, both for me and for the garden. When I was in the garden, I started picking cucumbers and got seven or eight ripe ones. Many too many to eat, so it was time to make bread and butter pickles! This is the first time in about ten years that I’ve had enough cukes to make pickles, so I was happy. Took them inside and got them sliced, but didn’t have any onions. Unfortunately they are not quite in season yet so had to get them at the grocery store rather than the local farm stand. Sliced the onions and put them with the cucumbers to sit in the fridge and do their thing. By late afternoon they had sat long enough, so I started cooking up the syrup. I had forgotten to check on the canning supplies, so a frantic search for rings and new lids took place. I knew where the canning jars were since I have boxes and boxes of them from the years that I canned in a major way. I grabbed the canning kettle and a box of jars just in time to add the cucumbers to the syrup. Everything worked out in the end and I now have ten pints of pickles for the coming year and I’ll probably have lots more, if the raccoons don’t get the cucumbers first.
On the Portfolio side, I finished my next set of portfolios. I design a way for them to hold a pad of paper that I hope is strong enough! There were, of course, some hiccups on the way – like cutting paper the wrong size – that happens when I’m pushing to get something done. They all worked out in the end and I’m pleased with the final results.
These are all for sale at Long’s Cards and Books in Penn Yan, NY.
