Summertime is Winding Down

   Yesterday was a lovely summer day.  Sunday was cold, rainy, and an all around bad fall day weather wise.  Today we have rain again.  What I like about summer time is the fresh food.  My garden is not large yet we have carrots, beans, beets, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, and asparagus.   We have raspberry bushes and blackberry bushes.  The rhubarb plants keep us supplied with all we can want to eat.  Almost everything gets eaten fresh from the garden.  Canning and freezing are done at a minimum.    What I do like to do is to make sweet pickle relish out of the larger cucumbers.  Late this summer Hannah made relish to take to 4-H fair next summer.  This is not a picture of her small cute jars of relish.  We took photos of her and her relish on her Mom's camera and I do not have them.  This is my batch of relish and my mismatched jars.  Hannah and I both love to hear the ping when the jars seal.  Warren will enjoy relish on his burgers this winter and it will make a fine addition to chicken and pork salad.

Pickle Relish

6 cups of ground cucumbers- do not peel but cut down the middle and remove seeds

1 cup ground onion

 1 teaspoon salt

Mix together and let stand for on hour. Next drain for one hour.

Combine in a kettle with

2 cups sugar

1 cup vinegar

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon tumeric

Bring to a boil and then hot pack in jars.

On recipe makes about 3 pints

(As I copied the recipe, I thought that we do not use the term kettle any more,

so this must be a very old version.)

Iowa State Fair Memories

Our  state puts on a wonderful fair every year in the middle of August.

Dad tells of going with his parents and grandparents to camp and visit the fair.

We drive a much greater distance and elect to return home to comfort mattresses

rather than spend the night in sleeping bags.

Kelsey and her Dad were the soda jerks.

Hannah worked in the food line.

Warren, Malissa, and I worked in the dining area.

 

The Grundy County Pork Producers provided us with matching T shirts.

We are not sure orange is our color.

Hannah wants them pink next year.

Our work crew was a great group of guys and gals who started work a bit before

3:00 in the afternoon and worked until 9:30 at night.

We were a tired troop.

 

The best part of the Iowa State Fair is that is is a "forget the diet day".

Everyone had a double dip ice cream except Warren.

In the morning we were able to see the girls State Fair 4-H entries and

take in a small portion of the wonderful things to see and do.

Biking Pictures

There are some beautiful spots along the trail in the Lanesboro, MN area.

The bike paths are wide, paved, and rather flat.

Just the way I like to ride. 

I got a few good pictures of Warren riding.  

The ones he took of me were all blurry.

We got a gal to take our picture.  

I think I shall have to find a purple top for our next photo.

Our weather was perfect.  It was not hot nor humid.