Celebrate the culture of agriculture & share skills (Growing! Cooking! Eating!)

Just when I thought it was over, there are more cucumbers...

My how things can change in just a short amount of time, from this....

to this....

I think anyone who has a vegetable garden suffers from the same affliction. We all over plant "just in case". Even when you know what you are doing, there are so many variables that are just out of your control. Weather conditions, fungus, insects, pollination issues, sudden death for unknown reasons - you really have no choice but to over do it. A problem follows with all that over planting though - every season you will have at least one crop that does so well you will be begging others to take it off your hands. This year it's cucumbers here at the homestead. I'm not sure how my cucumber plants don't have powdery mildew, which slows them down, by mid-August. That's practically unheard of in the Northeast, but they don't. They are also still blooming and reproducing like crazy.

I've already harvested 18 pounds for consumption by my family and friends, plus I've made pickles twice. I was so relieved when a blog post from the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association arrived in my inbox yesterday about an organization I knew nothing about. Ample Harvest seeks to connect backyard gardeners and small farmers with local food pantries, where you can drop off your excess veggies. Stuff that is still good enough for your family, but you just can't consume fast enough.

Today my daughter and I will be dropping off 32 pounds of cucumbers (a good lesson for the pre-teen as well) to Operation Hope in Fairfield, CT. Our organically grown cucumbers will be distributed to their clients through their food pantry.

I actually harvested 36 pounds this morning, 4 I'll keep to make one more batch of pickles. Brings our grand total on cucumbers so far this year to 54 pounds. Crazy!

Cross posted from In My Garden (country edition)

Comment by nancy =) on August 18, 2011 at 7:45pm: hi =) i;ve been following you for a while but am just now speaking up...i was wondering if you have a sweet pickle recipe (that is not bread and butter) or a dill pickle recipe that does not use the whole head dill weed...usually i was able to get the whole dill weed at the local farmer's market but this year i wasn't able to, and i too have tons of pickles!! thanks so muc!!

Comment by Steve Schwartz on August 18, 2011 at 11:24pm: Lucky you. My 7 plants have yielded about 12 cukes. Tons of flowers, but not much to eat. Plus I'm getting all sorts of stunted cukes. I envy you!

Comment by Shira Friedman on August 19, 2011 at 7:09am: @Steve - I wouldn't be too envious, my tomatoes are not fairing that well at all!! Stunted cukes is usually sign of a nutrient deficiency.

@Nancy - I don't use one specifically, but I know that there are many that use dill seed instead of the plant. If you're interested I'd recommend checking out Sherri Brooks Vinton's book "Put 'em Up!" It's a great resource that I use all the time. Thanks for following along :) I post much more often over at my blog -In My Garden (country edition) and just once in a while over here, especially in the summer when I'd rather be outside than in front of the computer!