Totally Homemade

I picked the first growth of our cucumbers, grown from seeds for Ellen’s Family white pickling cucumbers.

The cucumbers look like yellow squash but smelled strongly like cucumbers. I used the recipe on the back of Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime and made Old South Cucumber Lime Pickles. I make my own pickling spice as a variation from the Rodale’s whole pickling spice. Mrs. Wages’ recipe calls for a lime brine instead of a salt brine. It was far more labor intensive with lots of soaking, rinsing and steeping.

I will be pulling cucumbers off these vines for many more weeks. They are fat and healthy and seem very resistant to borers and pests plus the bees have loved the blossoms. I bought the seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.