2021, Family, Food, gardening, Uncategorized

In Search Of. . . .

52 Comments

I decided many years ago that I was tired of wasting garden space on pickling cucumbers, and I was tired of making pickles. This year, Husband had some cucumber plants leftover from the Church veggie garden and planted one in our garden at home. All the resulting cucumbers went along to the food pantry with the rest of the Church produce.

That wily cucumber vine grew about ten, well concealed cukes under a bushy tomato plant, and Husband thought they were the perfect size for bread and butter pickles. He found a nice refrigerator pickle recipe, so at least I didn’t need to process them in the canner. We had all the necessary ingredients except for Pickle Crisp, calcium chloride granules that, well, keep pickles crisp. This turned into quite a search.

We searched in Cashwise, Family Fare, Walmart, Tractor Supply, Runnings, and Menards before we found some at Ace Hardware, the very last possibility.

Once Husband starts searching for something, he never gives up until he has exhausted all options. He was apologetic but determined, since he really wanted to make pickles. They now sit in jars in the downstairs fridge, pickling and crisping up, for two weeks before we can try them.

What lengths have you gone to find something you needed? What are your favorite pickles?

52 thoughts on “In Search Of. . . .”

  2. I also remember searching for fresh herbs for our Thanksgiving turkey a couple of days before Thursday, and having to buy a pot of mixed herbs Walmart was selling to grow for an indoor herb garden. Living in the middle of the Great Plains can be an inconvenience at times.

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  3. In one day, I drove from Cherry Hill, New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware in search of a needed tool part.
    This was before MapQuest and Google Search.
    Yellow Pages and Paper Maps were the guides.
    Now it’s type a few words into Google Search and bring up a picture and location for the part.
    With all that technology at hand, searches for the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant should have been over by now. But then it would be sad not having several good movies.

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  4. Oh, I will search far and wide, in the physical. If it’s not in town, I will try to conjure up an errand near its location so I can justify driving to find it (think sewing notions)… The one thing I have no patience for is online searches, but I do make exceptions when I have no other options.

    I love half-sour dill pickles, and Kosher dills, wish I could remember the brand…

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    1. You used to be able to buy watermelon pickles in a jar. The company seems to have disappeared. My sister made some watermelon pickles a couple of years ago; I think DIY is the option for those now.

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  5. I have only searched really hard for one thing. Alas, I told the story in a 2018 Trail Baboon post. I used to own a lovely coffee mug that I bought in 1968. I actually expected to lose it, which happened when my daughter bumped a table and knocked the Arabia Beehive mug to the floor. It shattered. Since Arabia was a popular line, I expected it would be easy to find its replacement. Just the opposite was true. I spent 32 years looking for it. When I finally found its replacement. I was almost afraid to use it. Accidents do happen, and I’d hate to put in another 32 years searching for it again.

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  8. I don’t have a favourite, but I do like pickled radishes. Haven’t grown any for years, but when I do, I’ll pickle them. About the only way I can eat the things.

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  9. There was a certain book I searched for for more than 10 years. When one finally turned up online, I bought it even though it was more expensive than I usually spend. About a month later, a second copy showed up at about a third of the price. I bought that one too.

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    1. The Worldwide Web has been a blessing for those in search of books.
      I’ve located copies of Pearl S. Buck’s Christmas book, a novel by Zilpha
      Keatley Snyder that I read as a kid, and a book of quotes entitled Whole Grains, all of which were impossible to find pre-WWW.

      I was also able to find a copy of a book written by the mother of a friend of mine, about how to write living wills and medical directives.

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        1. One of the best of those groups. I went right off the Beatles, but the Searchers, never. “When you walk in the room,” one of my lifelong favourites.

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  12. OT: my life is “hurry up and wait” at the moment. We’ve got two white kittens off the street, a bit sick but we made them well. And three “bin babies”. that were left by the basuras, the dumpster as you’d call it. Two-week old tabbies, perfectly well but very hungry by the time I saw them. So that’s our life now. Wait for them to wake up, and feed them. They’re a bit unpredictable.
    So we have sixteen cats now. Jane says that the minimum required for “Crazy Cat Lady” status is three.
    They are nice though.

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      1. Barbara, we only have a tiny bit of outside space. Our late neighbour, Pepita, threatened to go to the town hall about our cats running across a low roof at the back of her house, so we had to fence them in. So they roam the house. Timmy, along with Pete, is the biggest. He got bullied so much we now keep him on the top floor, which contains our bedroom and bathroom, and Jane’s little office. Salem doesn’t get on with her brother Zeus, who’s half as big again, so stays up there as well most of the time. Lula likes it up there too, so she’s allowed.Those two are the littlest and prettiest (till now….). Policing the door to the stairs is a nuisance.
        The rest more or less get on, though there are several would be boss cats. George, the youngest, can’t let the idea go, really would like to be in charge, but he’s up against some tough ones, and keeps getting cornered. We’d try him up with Timmy, but he’s Isaac’s special cat, so Isaac needs him around. I get in a frenzy of rage every time the growling starts. It’s all a bit complex, but it’s not as bad as it’s starting to sound. I mean, the word’s out with the street cats, and George and Lula pretty much asked if they could move in.

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  13. Cucumbers we can grow pretty well in our garden. I’d make refrigerator pickles.
    Last summer I learned if I eat too many I get dyspepsia… (a stomach ache).
    This year I only ate a few at a time. But after a month I started getting stomach aches again.
    I might try creamy cucumbers… but I never have all the ingredients for them… I always have vinegar and sugar…

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  14. I have a “list” that I keep in mind for when I’m at garage sales, thrift shops, etc. If you asked me to tell you what’s on it, I probably couldn’t, but I know as soon as I see it. Finding things this way is a form of gambling – a crap shoot, if you will. If you go to enough sales that are basically a poor roll of the dice, you will eventually hit that one big jackpot, as I have a number of times, where you find, say, an almost new pair of Birkenstocks in your size…

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    1. I used to go to estate sales in certain neighborhoods all the time, there were so many treasures there. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a certain large Japanese clay pot that I did pick up the smaller version of. What was I thinking? They belonged together, but at the time I didn’t think I could justify the expense.

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  16. I did a lot more vegetable canning during my first marriage. I never grew the cucumbers but we did go to the farmers market and get baskets of them for pickles. Wasband had the same sandwich every day for lunch and it involved pickles. I have not made pickles since we split up.

    I do like pickled beets but I don’t usually make them because I’m the only one here who would eat them. So I admit to the kind that comes in a can or a jar.

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  17. Searching at any given length? That should be my middle name. The latest is trying to find replacements embossing plates for my die cutting machine. The company that makes my machine has discontinued it and the accessories. I’m not willing to cough up for a new machine and even when I do it certainly won’t be their new one. In my search I found a couple of sites that tell you how to make replacement plates from other materials. Haven’t tried that yet but I may end up having to go down that road.

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  19. searching for stuff is so much easier these days
    the internet is magic

    i need to find a part for my riding lawn mower that was in my garage but got moved to where it belongs and now i need to figure that out

    i’m a subtle dill guy a dill with a little heat a super garlicky dill
    i like bread and butter and deep fried pickles with peanut butter

    i like pickled asparagus in my virgin marys these days along with a fistful of olives

    virgin mary salad with celery salt tabasco worcestershire sauce and pickle cheese and olives on a stick or just dumped in there and i’ll use the stick to dig them out

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    1. I’m not a huge fan of okra, but I’ve had some hot, pickled okra, bought at the St. Paul farmer’s market, made by an elderly black woman, and they were delicious. Wish I could remember her name, as I’m fairly certain they must be available online.

      I have solved my inability to use my oven problem for now. I’ve found a brand new DeLonghi convection oven on Facebook Marketplace for $50.00. It was a wedding present that the couple didn’t need or want, and it will enable me to bake and roast until that chip arrives that will once again make my oven functional. It actually solves two problems. The DeLonghi isn’t large enough for husband’s baking, so it’s all mine, with no extraneous baking mess. 🙂

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