After neglecting the garden for a few days, I decided to get out there and pick the fruits and vegetables before I had to feed everything to the chickens.
Our cucumbers desperately needed harvesting. Even though Olivia eats one or two each day for a snack, and I try to make a cucumber and tomato salad with dinner each night, there were still many more cucumbers waiting to picked.
What can I do with an abundance of cucumbers?
Well, I decided to try Rhonda's recipe for Bread and Butter Cucumbers.
Sliced cucumbers are a huge treat for everyone in my family. It was a little funny to have to continuously remind little hands not to eat these cucumbers because I hadn't rinsed the salt of off them yet. They would attempt to sneak a few cucs, then tell me that I added waaaaaay too much salt. LOL That's how they are supposed to taste until the salt is rinsed!
BREAD AND BUTTER CUCUMBERS
5 medium cucumbers cut into 5 mm slices
350g onions, sliced very thinly
green capsicum and red chilli are optional
50g salt
350 ml cider or white wine winegar vinegar
350g sugar
2 level tablespoons mustard seed
2 level tablespoons celery seed
½ level teaspoon turmeric
¼ level teaspoon cayenne pepper
Slice the cucumbers, onions, capsicums and chilli and place in a bowl, and salt and let stand for 3 hours. Drain, rinse under the cold tap and drain thoroughly. Bring the remaining ingredients to the boil in a stainless steel saucepan and then add the vegetables. Reduce the heat, bring just to the simmer and cook 2 minutes. Pour hot into sterilized jars, making sure the liquid covers the cucumbers and seal.

The only problem was when I realized that my husband, a diabetic, wouldn't be able to eat any of it because of the sugar. The sugar in the recipe didn't even register until I started adding it to the pot!
After Mass today, we took a jar to my mom. She enjoyed them, and asked for a copy of the recipe. 8-)