Can It!

What do you do when a bunch of cucumbers and jalapenos ripen at the same time? You pickle everything in sight! This is my very first pickle experience and I love how they look in the jars. I've made cherry and blackberry jam before so I'm not afraid of the canning process. I got the recipe from one of my favorite food/garden blogs and I love how simple it is.  Now I have to wait 4-6 weeks to have a taste. I forgot how hot it gets when canning. Imagine hovering over 3 pots of boiling liquid while it is 80+ degrees outside. Yeah, hot and humid to the extreme.

Drastic Measures

Pickle protection

 My crazy may be showing a little bit. I mean, who puts cucumbers in stockings?  I'll tell ya who....anyone in the south who wants a worm free cucumber, that's who!  You saw in my last post how excited I get when it comes to watching the veggies grow, picking them and eating them. Well, imagine how excited I got watching my cucumbers grow.  From tiny little prickle covered things into large, smooth, shiny cucumbers. Amazing! Then I cut into one, then two, then three......aww man......how did they get in there?   If your from the North like I am, I'm sure your on the edge of your seat wondering what in the heck could possibly be IN the cucumber.  If your from the south, I'm sure your shaking your head at the silly northerner who never heard of a pickleworm.  Nice.  I gotta give it to whomever named these southern pains in the asses because they are spot on names. We previously met the bean leafroller, now we have the pickleworm.  And chalk one up for Mother Nature too if your keeping score cause these things are a super clever bunch or parasites. Ugh. Just what I need, clever parasites.

The best I can piece together is that the pickleworm moth lays some eggs on the cucumber flowers, these turn into tiny worms that drill a tiny hole into a young cucumber and then happily eats and lives in the middle until some unsuspecting beginner gardener stumbles upon it. The moths come at night so you can't swat them away and once the worm is inside no topical remedies work.  So now what? Enter the pantyhose.

funky cucumber with room to grow

so sexy

Ruby trying to figure it out

 I saw online somewhere that a guy was tying socks and stockings onto cucumber sprouts and having some success so I gave it a whirl. I got about 8 cukes that were worm free and 2 that still got worms. Not bad considering every single one had worms in the beginning. Coincidence or do the stockings work?  Next crop I'll be getting some bird netting to drape over the cukes.  I read that it works by keeping the moths from getting to the flowers and laying eggs. A 3/4 inch net is supposed to be large enough to let the bees in to pollinate but keep the pickleworm moths out. We shall see.

worm free cukes and tomatoes