Rain? Rest?

We did get rain. I did not get much rest. But, it has been great. We got 1.5" thunder rain overnight and .3" gentle rain on Wednesday morning. I have continued to harvest and can the cucumbers. Pictured above is the syrup for 6 pints of Sweet and Spicy pickles which I canned yesterday. One of the jars did not seal. Always check the seals. A failure does not happen very often, but if it does you can put the pickles in the refrigerator and eat them sooner rather than later.

The second photo is the syrup just after the pickles were added. The dried cayenne peppers in these pickles were dried from the radish stew garden last year, I put one in each jar.

I also blanched and froze 2 quart packages of green beans. I have been picking over 1 1/2 pounds of beans per day.

Today I canned these seven 3/4 pint jars of pickles relish. I have used all the relish I canned last year. It is so great to make potato salad and just open a jar of relish to flavor it perfectly. Of course, the other side of the story is that it takes a lot of time and precision to dice the vegetables just so. I diced in the morning and left the veggies in the brine in the fridge. Then I went to the art museum at UT to see the Matisse prints exhibit. I came home and canned these in record time. I had to buy peppers for this dish, the first vegetables I have canned not from the garden.