I am making pickles (again) this weekend, so this morning I picked the cucumbers that were large enough for picking. It is a "weird shaped" cucumber weekend! But before I show you all of the weird shapes, I must tell you about the funniest cucumber of all.
I have a cucumber plant NEAR the chicken yard. It put out long vines that reached over and grabbed hold of the sunflowers planted right next to the chicken yard fence. The vine managed to work its way into the chicken yard (too high for the girls to reach)...
...where this pickle grew (this is not the funny cucumber).
The vine grew back out of the chicken yard again...
...where THIS pickle grew! You will notice that this pickle didn't grow entirely on the outside of the chicken yard. It managed to grow part way out, and part way in. Before I even knew it was there, it was far too large for the netting it was growing through and grew into this oddly shaped cucumber. I ended up cutting the netting around the cucumber to get it off of the vine.
Here are the rest of the oddly shaped cucumbers from this morning's harvest... you can see the "little cucumber that could" second from the right, with part of the netting still attached. The other odd shaped cucumbers came from a plant that had a bit of trouble a week or so ago -- I think it got short of water, which stunted the growth of the cucumbers a bit. Not to worry ... they still taste great, and will make super tasty pickles!
The cucumbers weren't the only crazy shapes harvested this morning! I also found THIS, lurking underneath one of the zucchini plants! My goodness! 3.75 pounds of squashy goodness! In case you're wondering, that is a full-sized table knife next to it to give you something to compare its size to. I grated this zuc up and have a batch of zucchini relish sitting in the fridge that I will can tomorrow. Yum!
Goodness you have an abundance of produce and some very interesting shapes too.
Oh do share the zucchini relish recipe. Sounds yummy.
Posted by: Ida | July 26, 2010 at 03:50 PM
That is one amazing cucumber! I'm so proud that it didn't give up, and made it even with the fencing and netting!!! AWESOME!
Some of the others are really "cute"...love the ones that look more like limes than cukes! :D
Hope you had a great weekend. Relax tonight, so you'll be ready for another work week! (BLEAH) I hope it goes by quickly! :D
Posted by: diane mcvey | July 25, 2010 at 01:39 PM
You had me in "suspenders" as my grandfather used to say. I thought, "Oh no, a skunk came to visit". Glad that B.B. is fine. What a hoot!
Posted by: Phillis | July 25, 2010 at 09:58 AM
That looks like one of the zucchini's I picked yesterday! Would you be willing to share your zucchini relish recipe? It sounds so good and my daughter was just asking about it last night. We're also growing jalapenos so I wonder what a hot zucchini relish would taste like ;)
Posted by: Mitzi Koons | July 25, 2010 at 08:41 AM
Makes me wish I lived on a farm. The zucchini relish sounds delightful.
Posted by: Gabi With An Eye | July 25, 2010 at 08:18 AM
I adore home made pickles, they sound so yummy, love all the pictures, sure do wish I had more room in our garden!
Posted by: Loretta | July 25, 2010 at 06:22 AM
Typical of your farm ... never anything run-of-the-mill ...even the cucumbers have to be 'different'! And only you would cut the netting, rather than the cucumber!
I have 14 jars of dill pickles done so far and that may be all...our cucumbers have been hit with a disease for the past couple of years and it's only the first harvest that seems to be disease-free.
Posted by: bonnie weiss | July 25, 2010 at 05:22 AM
Just read the "news" about Betty and the pickles, I have to say I really love your descriptions, you truly have a gift. You feel like you are standing next to you and talking. This blog is the honestly the first I go to to see if there is an update. You need a tv show
Posted by: jayn converse | July 25, 2010 at 04:14 AM
Busy, busy, busy....both the vines and you!
You going to have so much homemade goodness to enjoy this winter. :) hugs...
Posted by: Carol Dee | July 24, 2010 at 09:01 PM
The cukes look like little cucumber balloons!
Posted by: Renee | July 24, 2010 at 08:57 PM
Giggle, what fun! I love the cucumber that tried to grow on BOTH sides of the fence. It must be related to Baaaaad Betty! LOL
Posted by: Sharli | July 24, 2010 at 08:43 PM