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October 2011: Garden Tips of the Month

October Tip of the Month from Linda Dodds, Master Gardener and Fox Islander

Fall has certainly made its entrance with rainy and windy weather but there should be balmy and sunny days left before the real nasty weather really settles in.  This means there will be plenty of time to get your garden beds ready for winter.  Continue to pull weeds and as your beds are cleaned up, start adding a layer of compost and fallen leaves to protect them from windblown weed seeds and to help the soil from washing away from torrents of rain.  Continue to harvest produce by digging up potatoes, onions and garlic on sunny days.  Rinse them well to rid them of pests and attached dirt and let them dry well in a protected warm place.  I let my onions and potatoes cure a little in a dry location before storing them for the year.  Winter squash should also be hardened off some before storing them in a cool but dry location.  Once garlic is dry, separate the cloves and replant them for next year’s crop.  Collect nasturtiums, cosmos and sweet pea seeds and let them dry well before marking and saving them to plant next spring.  Keep picking tomatoes as they ripen but if a real cold snap is predicted, pick even the ones with just a little color, wash and sort and lay out on newspaper in a dark cool place to ripen.  Green tomatoes can be canned into all different kinds of pickles and chutneys.

But what to do with all the cucumbers that have flourished so beautiful this year?  A family can eat only so many dill pickles and bread and butter pickles but your plants just keep producing so here is what I did.  I made a delicious South Asian Pickle that really isn’t a sandwich type of pickle.  Rather, it is an accompaniments type relish that would be delicious with rice, pork or almost any plain food.  I enjoy it so much I have made 3 batches of them and each batch makes about 7 pints depending on the size of your cucumbers.  The rest of my cucumbers went to good homes where someone else made pickles out of them.

South Asian Achar Pickles

1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts,4 Tbls sesame seeds,2 onions, 15 small dried red chilies, 1 peeled fresh ginger root (1 1/2 inch long) 4 garlic cloves, 2 1/2 cups of white vinegar, 1 cup sugar, 2 Tbls Kosher salt, 1 Tlbs turmeric, 2 medium pealed carrots, 5 cups of cauliflower florets and here is the tricky part:  The recipe calls for 3 English cucumbers but since I use my homegrown ones, I just try to figure out how many cukes that would be (probably 6 or 7) depending on the size.

Prepare a hot water bath caner with enough water to cover jars by 1 inch.  Bring to a boil.  Get lids and sterilized jars ready and have a paper towel, jar lifter and hot pads ready.

Place peanuts in a blender and pulverize.  Put sesame seeds and peanuts in a small ungreased frying pan and toast on medium heat, stirring until nicely toasted.  Set aside in a small bowl.  Grind the onions, garlic, ginger and chilies until they become a paste.  It helps to add a little of the vinegar in the blender while doing this.  Cut the carrots and cukes into matchsticks about 1 1/2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide and place them in a large bowl along with the cauliflower.  In a heavy large pot put the remaining vinegar, sugar, salt and turmeric and bring to a boil on high heat.  Stir frequently and reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and add the peanut mixture and vegetables, stir well and bring to a full boil for 5-7 minutes or until hot.   Fill jars leaving 1/2 inch head space, wipe the rims of the jars and screw on the lids.  Place in caner when all jars are filled, cover caner and bring to boil for 15 minutes.  Remove lid from pot and turn off heat.  Let jars remain in caner for 5 minutes then carefully using a jar remover, place jars on a heat proof surface.  Make sure jars do not touch nor are they in a draft.  When jars are cool, test the seal by gently tapping on the lids to see if there is any play and the jars are sealed tightly.  Any unsealed jar can be kept in the refrigerator.

Enjoy the fruits of your harvest!!!