Relish

The cucumbers have gone absolutely bonkers. This is four pounds of them that I made relish from yesterday. I picked that many again today. I eat cucumber salads most days. And refrigerator pickles when I'm not having salad. But still they keep producing. I love cucumbers, but it is hard to keep up. Cucumber vines aren't really long lived around here usually. Wilt tends to set in. Powdery mildew takes over. Then their production peters off. But for now I'm happily eating and will be looking to dump my extras on my neighbors soon.

I made too many pickles last year. I'm not a big canned pickle eater, but I do eat them occasionally. However relish tends to be used in things like tarter sauce and tuna or egg salad sandwiches. Not to mention its addition on burgers. In season I'll have refrigerator pickles on my burgers. But out of season it is relish. I'm thinking one of my Christmas gifts to the neighbors this year will be dill relish. I certainly have enough cucumbers to make extras.

In addition to relish, I've been drying herbs. Yesterday it was rosemary. Today tarragon. I don't know what has gotten into my tarragon plant this year, but I'm liking it. The plant was almost two feet tall and as wide around. I've never had tarragon grow like that for me before. Usually it pouts and makes me wonder if it will die. Last year it perked up a bit and this year it went crazy. It is even threatening to bloom. I've never seen tarragon bloom before. The flowers look so tiny that I doubt it will be very showy.