A productive day?

This is the sum total of my achievements today.

It is true, I am officially on holiday. It is true the family are home and daughter is still recovering from operation. It is true that I spent most of the day pottering in the garden and also made chicken stock. It is true that I spent a lot of time writing part 10 of the epic, How I came to be in England, as well as staring at the last sentence of my 50 thousand word manuscript, The Lost Daughter but not adding a single word to it.

As this momentous jar of pickled cucumbers from the garden is such an achievement, I thought I’d share the recipe with you:

Raw pickling cucumbers about 1 kg
1 tbls coriander seeds
1 large yellow onion, sliced
2 tbls yellow mustard seeds
2 tbls raw sliced horse radish
10-20 dill flowers
10 small vine leaves (currant leaves are also good)

For the pickling liquid:
300 ml water
300 ml white vinegar
400 ml sugar
100 ml salt

Bring the liquid ingredients to a boil & cool. Scrub and wash the cucumbers, slice to about 10mm thickness and place in a jar alternating with spices, vine leaves, onion slices and dill flowers. Pour over the liquid. It’s ready in about a week and lasts up to five months in dark larder or similar (I keep mine in a spare fridge for jams etc.)

Needless to say, if you lack any one ingredient, such as dill flowers, just use dill on its own, or substitute with any other herb. I’ve made this with tarragon before, and it works just as well.

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