Closeup of figs - the entire bush is covered like this:
Posted on 09/01/2020 6:04:23 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
That sounds like it might be very close! I’ll try it.
Thanks, Liz.
I absolutely love candied dill sticks. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find them at the store any more, and even when I do they aren’t very good.
I have a friend who makes the best pickles I’ve had since I was a kid, but she won’t give me the recipe. All I know is they are fermented on the counter, have the normal spices and are sweet and crispy. (She uses alum)
She said when she was young her mom used to send her to the store for alum. If the store was out her mom would fuss....” Them hoes is out working again”.
Amazon has a bunch of them. When I was a kid my dad ran a Swift Meat branch and his butchers broke down the sides of beef to customer order for the better restaurants and high end stores. The rest was boxed. Kevlar gloves weren’t invented yet. His buthchers wore a heavy chain mail glove that had a lot of small metal plates covering the mail. It looked like a knights gauntlet. It was a left hand glove which you used to hold the meat. The knives and bandsaw blades were incredibly sharp and they worked quickly.
They apparently still make the stainless steel butchers gloves as well as aprons. They aren’t anything as heavy duty as the ones my dad workers used. Thinking about it might want a Kevlar and an all stainless steel mesh glove. The stainless ones can be thrown into a dishwasher and might be easier to clean and sterilize
How do you treat yours (figs) when you harvest them?
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Up until this year, we just pick ‘em & eat ‘em!! We might get a small bowl full at a time. This year is going to be different because we have SO many! I’m watching them because I need about a gallon to do the fig pickles. The birds get some, the bees & other insects are on them so it’s a balancing act - they need to be ripe enough, but picked before they get eaten by something else besides us!
As for wrapping the fig in winter, we should do that, but we don’t. Most of the time the bush is ok, but the last couple of years, we’ve had mid to late spring hard freezes that have killed the bush back to the roots (the hard freezes gets our camellia buds, too). It comes back, but more slowly, the figs are sparse & ripen late in the fall rather than ripe late August, early September.
Closeup of figs - the entire bush is covered like this:
At one of our gourmet club meetings, the host had several recipes using pickle juice as a brine.
These 2 recipes were popular with the crowd:
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pickle-brined-chicken
https://www.titosvodka.com/recipes/vodka-drinks/pickle-martini/
I’ve always wanted to buy one of those giant individually packaged Boar’s Head dill pickles. I think I will ; )
Nice bushes! Much larger than the ones I’ve seen - but probably better cared-for.
(Where do you live?)
If your husband likes grilled cheese.....try this. I’ve only done it on wonder bread with American cheese. After you spatula it out of the pan & cut in half.....lay dill pickle chips inside. It’s monumentally delicious. I drain my pickles on paper towels beforehand. I’m craving one now!
I’m sure he would like that :-)
He puts those pickles on everything.
I’ve seen butchers and animal-care people use those metal mesh gloves. I’ve never actually worn one, but it seemed to me that they were not at all as useful as Kevlar might be against a very slender small animal incisor or canine - or even the point of a little paring knife.
I’ll be looking for Kevlar :-)
A lot of the metals ones are class 9 which is about as good as it gets. Butchers don’t use many pointy blades. They are puncture proof. The test for puncture proof is drop scimitar point knife from 1 foot and see if it penetrates. A 9 requires 6000 grams of pressure to cut through material. A 6 is 3000 grams. Kevlar doesnt provide those levels but works fine in ordinary kitchen for heavier tasks. Its a 2 btw.
Make sure you try on before you buy since they come in different sizes. Mines very tight on my hand because i bought it primarily for my wife whose hand is smaller. Luckily the Kevlar one i bought stretches enough.
I will definitely keep all of that in mind :-)
They’re terrible!
After going through a couple of recipes I finally found one that was pretty close.
Seven cups of cucumbers (sliced and be sure to remove both ends)
Two cups of onion
Two tablespoons of pickling salt
Two cups sugar
One cup Apple cider vinegar (this is not cooked so use the good stuff!)
One tablespoon mustard seed
One tablespoon celery seed
Two bay leaves
Sprinkle cucumbers and onions with salt and let sit for about an hour. Then rinse and drain.
Mix the rest of the ingredients until the sugar dissolves. You can warm the vinegar SLIGHTLY if you want but I find it all will dissolve in time if you just wait.
Pour over cucumbers and onions and place in a freezer safe plastic container. Store in refrigerator for one day and then pop into the freezer. Let freeze for two weeks and then you can take them out, thaw and enjoy.
They do not last much beyond about two weeks after thawing so I freeze them in about one cup containers.
That looks easy - and about my speed. Thanks!
: (
Horseradish Sauce
Mix cup sour cream 1/4 cup applesauce 2 tb ea horseradish, mayonnaise, breadcrumbs, 2 cups h/cream
½ cup chp basil 1/4 cup chp chives 1 ½ tsp lemon zest 2 tb minced chives tb chp fresh dill, Ks/p
ASSEMBLY Spread dollop horseradish sauce on toasted baguette, add slice of beef; top w/ dollop horseradish sauce
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