excess and deficit

We're still in the thick of cucumbers here. Giant Russian cucumbers.

Our little lemon cucumber vine has succumbed to mildew (unlike our, true to description, giant Russian vine) but not after giving us basket after basket full of crispy apple like fruit to munch freshly plucked in the garden or to fill our daily salads. It's space in the garden has now been quickly occupied by some rather pretty looking red Mekong amaranth. Mmm.

The giant vine powers on carrying close to half a dozen fast maturing gold beauties at a time. All carefully bagged of course to foil that pesky Queensland fruit fly. He is not a welcome visitor at our place that's for sure...but perhaps more on that later.
And so everyday I've popped out to cradle each hard fat small football fruit in my hands and wonder, as I smile broadly with a bit of pride at my successes in the cucurbit world, just what I am really going to do with them all.
And while attending to my garden meandering yesterday and plucking said giant golden cucumbers in preparation for my solution to our small glut...our excess....I spied the other protection bag I like to cradle often in anticipation.... it held the single apple on our little apple tree. And it was glowing slightly pink through the white bag and feeling rather excitedly round and plump until alas I felt that dreaded squishy feeling on it's base. Could it be blossom end rot from all the crazy rain lately....I couldn't be sure.

But what I was sure of however was that we were going to all eat that apple nevertheless (minus the squishiness of course), and with giant bites and squeals of pleasure at our small homegrown victory and the novelty of it, we passed it from hands to hands as we did exactly that. And it was the best tasting apple containing more of our garden's excess and deficit in that one swollen fruit!

And then, with my mouth still tingly with tasty satisfaction, it was back to the kitchen and the solution to our other excess which I found here. (scroll down just a little from her Mum's first reply)

And my oh my what a solution!

With memories of being teenage and *borrowing* jars of gherkins at lunchtime from the Home Economics rooms at high school (really what was I thinking...they are barely even recognisable as cucumbers.... and that acrid vinegar...well) I made this up last night.

And this morning we played here at home in the garden with our own homemade jar of fresh pickles and sunshine accompanying us... just for snacking of course... in excess

I highly recommend this super easy recipe. And I recommend you add the sesame oil.
I used just one giant cucumber and added a bit more pickling and I used white wine vinegar.

The chilli, well, I don't have any fresh fruiting in the garden yet so I added flakes from the pantry and my little one's don't mind a bit of zing...let me tell you they have inherited their Mama's love of pickley things...but I'll leave that up to you if you try it.

Happy pickles.

I'm off to pluck out another one...or two.