In the Garden: Pumpkin/Daikon pickles and Dudley Corn

Inspired by my friend Karen, who was giving out samples of AMAZING lacto-fermented brined pumpkin and daikon pickles she was making for the Earthskills fundraiser on Sunday, I made a batch, too.  There were lots of radishes that needed pulled in the garden, and we still have lots of pumpkins.  Some of the Anna Swartz Hubbards were looking a little dire.

And there was even one whole kohlrabi the rabbits spared me - so thoughtful of them.  I love the colors.  There were enough daikons left over to make a batch of Edchi - named after our friend Ed Sherwood (Karen's husband, coincidentally) who died tragically almost three years ago.  He loved making what he called Edchi.  It's just grated, salted and fermented daikon.  It's a really mild and delicious pickle, and I'll always think of Ed when we make it.

I should add that bush hogging the rest of the garden seems to have solved the rabbit problem.  I planted out some new tender starts to tempt them with, but I think it's too dangerous for them in the field without the plant cover.  I need to make a note for us to bush hog much earlier in the year next time. It wasn't only good for the rabbits - I also got our rye cover crop planted at last.

More exciting news - I managed to obtain some seeds from Dudley Farm to boost the genetic variety of the corn I am growing.  I'm worried about that because my corn was taken from only a few cobs, so I've been trying to get as much different seeds from different people keeping in their freezers as possible.  I told them the older, the better, because I wanted to get corn that had not been messed up by them yet.

They told me I could have 25 seeds at the most, so I was pleasantly surprised for them to hand me two bags that were much fuller that 25 seeds.  One batch was from 2004, and the other was from last year.  I was really careful to keep them labled, so I wouldn't mix them up.  When I got home and went to jar them up for the freezer, I realized I shouldn't have bothered.  I also think I know why they can't grow any corn.....

Can you see the difference?  The top picture is corn from 2004.  The bottom picture is the recent corn.  I probably managed to pick about 25 non-moldy kernels out.  But it was hard.