Pickle Tasting and Barter

Pickle tasting pane

Finally got around to opening “Grandma's Pickles” (see previous flea market posts). This was craft night so it was a good time to have some impartial tasting. The results were not particularly scientific, but were useful for tasting purposes. The general consensus was a good to okay pickle. Not amazing but good for the price. In my opinion, they were more like a sour pickle than a typical “Claussen” type dill. The garlic wasn't extremely pronounced. You can still find sour pickles in the store, but they are pretty uncommon, mostly there are just variations of the regular dill pickle. Thank you to the tasting panel for their feedback.

Supper tonight was taco salad, cheese dip and chips, and fruit for dessert. I made too much salad, trying to use up some of my lettuce. There will have to be a salad eating frenzy in the next couple of days.

I am looking forward to not buying lettuce. The greens in the garden are almost ready to start thinning and using. I have Grand Rapids lettuce, cos (romaine), and some heading type, a gift from another gardener friend. The arugula is already up and plotting the overthrow of the existing garden authorities (see previous arugula post).

Wood chips for mulching should be at the garden when I get some free time to work there on Wednesday. I have bartered some ivy and monkey grass for a load or two of wood chips from a local tree trimming service. The chips will be used in the garden and the newly planted orchard (blackberries and three new plums). Wouldn't it be great to be able to trade locally for things we needed. No tax, no shipping costs, less gas, less packaging, etc. Locally produced is good and good for us. Do we really need all those things made and shipped from China. I don't have anything against them, but I would rather invest in my local economy than their economy. I would rather trade the plants I propagated and grew for the byproduct of a local tree trimming service to help grow the food I want.