Category: a day in this life

Because I can never remember, I’m making a note here.  My chives have started to come up in their pot on the deck.

Not ready to use, yet.  But, there are intimations of flavors to come.  And, in spite of the cold, the cilantro keeps on coming back.  The red sorrel is rallying, too.

I’m used to the thymes, rosemary and sage making it through the winter.   I wasn’t sure about the cilantro and sorrel, since I haven’t grown them before.  And I can never remember when the chives revive.

I intend to plant dill, parsley and basil when it warms up.  But, I’ve only got so much space in the herb bed.    Basil has done well in the holes around the raised beds in the past.  I am inclined to do that again.  Dill and parsley are both biennials, so I need to choose a permanent place for them.  When I pass some cilantro plants along to friends, I may have room for both of them in the bed.

I have decided that the cucumbers that look like teensy watermelons have to be eaten fresh or made into sour/dill  pickles.  They just don’t work with sugar.

The jar on the right is dill pickles.

The jar on the left is sweet pickle raisins that are too hard to use in anything.  I tried simply pouring boiling sweet pickle solution over them rather than going through the “tenderizing” procedure that ordinary cucumbers require.  That was no more effective than using the original method I learned from my grandmother.