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?
Ace hardward has a few tricks up its sleeve. Agway is a great place, also.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Welcome to the trail, Michael. I checked out your website, and will explore it some more. Nice work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed…Ace is the place!!’
LikeLiked by 2 people
agway is only northeast i believe
LikeLike
we have fleet farm
renee has home of economy
wes is it big r?
LikeLike
Yes to Fleet Farm, with reservations about the politics of the owners. I go there infrequently, but I feel a certain connection to the housewares aisles.
LikeLiked by 4 people
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.
LikeLiked by 4 people
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.
LikeLiked by 7 people
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…
LikeLiked by 2 people
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.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Barbara, I know you like to come back later and check the blog, so I’ll ask you : what is a sewing notion?
LikeLike
Or should I have looked in the glossary?
LikeLike
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.
LikeLiked by 4 people
I tend to just wait till something turns up. Which it probably mostly doesn’t.
LikeLiked by 3 people
But I find plenty of stuff I wasn’t looking for that way.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Air pickles
LikeLike
?
LikeLike
Like air guitar not like air fries
LikeLiked by 2 people
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.
LikeLiked by 2 people
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.
LikeLiked by 4 people
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.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Can’t pass up posting this.
LikeLiked by 3 people
In the absence of more postings, I will present my search in music.
A semi-rich 60+ lady who doesn’t mind a nearly 70 years old fat guy.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Do you know how long it’s been since I heard that?? : )
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well here’s another one with the Searchers theme.
LikeLiked by 3 people
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Got to get my vinyl out.
LikeLike
No.
LikeLike
Meant for Barbara.
LikeLike
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.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Gatos?
LikeLike
Wessew, si. Deiz y seis.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Tres perros tambien.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops. Diez.
LikeLike
Wow – 16 of ’em! Where do you keep them all?
LikeLike
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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…
LikeLiked by 2 people
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…
LikeLiked by 2 people
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.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Seekers best.
Longer seekers.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Blast from the past. A weirdly lengthy blast from the past.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes. The original was too short and this is too long but it does show Judith Durham lost nothing vocally in the 30 years shown.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yes, I’d almost forgotten this! Fun to see the different eras…
LikeLike
I was so in love with her back then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I mean, back the first time around.
LikeLike
And maybe I still am
LikeLike
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.
LikeLiked by 2 people
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.
LikeLiked by 3 people
LikeLiked by 4 people
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
LikeLiked by 4 people
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. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Way to go!
LikeLiked by 1 person