Radishrain

I saw a bee dangling from a wonderberry flower (by its hands) for a really long time. I thought maybe it was pollinating it, but I waited, and waited, and it was still there. So, I attempted to help it out, and as soon as it saw me get close, it stopped and flew off. So, it wasn't stuck, it seems. Perhaps the flower was just small; so, it required the bee to stretch and dangle. Anyway, I put a label under that flower in hopes that it'll make a fruit that ripens (for seed-saving purposes) before the frost. I removed the other blossoms/fruits on the truss. If the flower was that interesting to a honeybee, then it might be worth trying to breed wonderberries where all the flowers are attractive to them. Plus, the resulting fruits might taste better.

Well, I harvested most of the tomatoes, ripe and unripe, with the exception of the damaged ones (there were lots of those). Usually we seem to have loads of tomatoes at the end, but we got lots throughout the season, and less at the end, this time. I thought the first freeze was going to be on Wednesday morning, but we've had light frosts before and after then, and no 32-° F. temperatures on the weather.

Unripe misc. tomatoes:

The ones in the following picture are unripe Sheboygan tomatoes:

Ripe and obviously ripening tomatoes:

The following article lists diseases that tomato seeds can carry: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265074/

Take a look at this article that shows a considerable lot of research has been done on Cucumis anguria: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0717345815000688

This is a helpful article, if you weren't aware of such facts as that brown sugar is acidic (and so can help baking soda to make things rise):

Cookie Science: The Real Differences Between Brown and White Sugars, by Stella Parks:

https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12/faq-difference-brown-white-granulated-sugar-baking-cookies.html

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This recipe is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 48 (Hamburger Dills).

Ingredients:
* 4lbs 4" cucumbers (sliced) (we would probably use West India burr gherkins)
* 6 tablespoons canning salt
* 4½ cups water
* 4 cups vinegar
* 14 heads fresh dill
* 3½ teaspoons musard seed
* 14 peppercorns (2 per each of the 7 pint jars)

See book for directions. 15-minutes in a water-bath canner. It has you boil most of the seasons, sans the dill, and drizzle them over the top of the packed cucumbers.

I haven't tried it, yet, but it looks like one of the better and simpler dill pickle recipes I've seen. It has no sugar added.

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Here's a chile sauce recipe adapted from the Ball Book of Preserving, p. 53, which a relative used to make chile sauce for me.

4 quarts tomato
2 cups onion (2 medium onions)
2 cups sweet peppers
1 red hot pepper (we used two red Farmer's Jalapenos and an orange Aji Habanero)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed (we used ground mustard)
2½ cups vinegar

Chop everything. Simmer for 45 minutes (add vinegar significantly later than the other things). Have spices in a tied bag in it while it simmers. 15 minutes in a water-bath canner.

I don't know how it's going to turn out, but it smelled a lot like those Asian chile sauces. My relative put cinnamon in it as one of the pickling spices.

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A relative made lots of dill pickles with West India burr gherkins for me.

The ingredient list here is adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 48.

* 8lbs 4–6" cucumbers, cut in long halves (my relative used West India burr gherkins cut into halves, and probably eyeballed the amount)
* ¾ cup sugar (my relative used either less or no sugar; I didn't want sugar, because they're dill pickles and I don't think they should be sugary; we could have just used the Hamburger Dills recipe instead, as it has no sugar, it seems)
* ½ cup canning salt (my relative used less salt, although I would have requested the full amount)
* 1 quart vinegar
* 1 quart water
* 3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
* Green or dry dill (1 head per jar) (my relative used dill seeds)

Simmer the spices in a bag for 15 minutes. Process 15 minutes in a water-bath canner.

I don't know how these will taste, but I hope we'll enjoy them and that they'll taste good.

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burr_gherkin

This recipe is adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 47. A relative used this recipe, potentially slightly modified, with West India burr gherkins instead of cucumbers.

Ingredients:
* 4lbs 4–6" cucumbers (¼" slices) (my relative used burr gherkins instead, eyeballing the amount)
* 2lbs onions, sliced thin (about eight small onions)
* ⅓ cup canning salt (my relative used less salt, apparently, but I would have followed the recipe there)
* 2 cups sugar (my relative used a single cup)
* 2 tablespoons mustard seed (my relative used ground mustard)
* 2 teaspoons turmeric
* 2 teaspoons celery seed
* 1 teaspoon ginger
* 1 teaspoon peppercorns
* 3 cups vinegar

Process 10-minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Anyway, I don't know how these are going to turn out, but they look really good. The mustard makes them nicely yellow.

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I'm attempting to freeze my harvest of epazote leaves, this year. I hope it still works! I'm grateful for the idea, which I hadn't considered until today or so.

Here's my harvest ready to go in the freezer: