Sauergurken

Or Dillgurken or Gewurzgurken or Essiggurken or in English Pickled cucumbers.

This year I have planted loads of special small "pickling" cucumbers in the greenhouse. Although I have tied them up vertically, these cucumbers can be allowed to grow on the ground and indeed most of those harvested in Germany are grown on fields and outdoors. They do however like warmth and there are two areas best known for producing them. One in northern Bavaria - Franconia - and the other in the the very watery area near Berlin known as the Spreewald.

One half of the greenhouse is cucumbers, the other side tomatoes. Apparently, they are not good bedfellows but seemingly the yard metre or so distance is sufficient for both to grow well.

Today I attacked the cucumbers as many are getting large. In fact, I ended up picking both all the large ones and a good number of small, cornichon size ones.

Space was at a premium in the kitchen as Angie had been collecting berries fro all over the place - the garden and the forest and was busy making large quantities of jam. She had been to the supermarket in the morning to buy special jam sugar and a large canister of vinegar for my cucumbers.

In the end I went for two variations - one with the whole small cornichon size ones and the large ones cut into "sticks" which allows one to take out one or two to decorate/spice up a sandwich or homemade burger. Once pickled, they can also be chopped into potato salad and the liquid from the jar used as the moistening agent. Bavarian potato salad is different to that in more northern parts - it is vegan and apart from the potatoes, pickled cucumbers and the juice, (salt, pepper & any prefered herbs) contains no animal products. In northern parts they use mayonnaise instead of the vinegar.

To my vinegar, I had added dill (including any flowering branches), onion rings, garlic, fresh ginger, mustard seeds and peppercorns. In two glasses I added a teaspoon of sugar to see if it gave a sweet & sour taste but I suspect the amount was too little. If I had used my honey, the vegan label would no longer be awarded my production facility!

I suspect there are many more bottles/jars to follow.

The vegetable garden has been far less successful than planned with lots of seed packets having total failure. Interestingly daughter Kate in Ireland (with British Isle seeds) had the same thing. Strange given the warm spring.

However, the dwarf beans, peas and carrots (for the moment baby thinned out ones) are plentiful and crying out to be harvested and frozen. Another job for the coming week. Monday is the last sun & cloud day before the sun and 30°C return right through to the weekend. I need something that allows me to seek the cool of the house.