Venny's Refrigerator Pickles

Makes 1 gallon.  You can add a 'little' water if you need to top them off but I"ve found that if you leave them be for an hour or so they generate enough liquid on their own.

Put into the jar:
7 c. sliced cucumbers
1.5 cups sliced onions (I omit these if I don't have little ones)

Mix and heat until the sugar is dissolved, simmer a minute or so:
2 T. pickling salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 tsp celery seed (optional)

Cool down a bit then pour over the cucumbers. Refrigerate.  Ready to eat the next day, they keep nice and crisp for about a week.  They're generally gone well before then at our house.

I have no idea who Venny is but this is where the original recipe came from.  I got it from our Finnish neighbor Elaine Mannikko when we lived in Minnesota.

Where DOES the time go?  Here it is, mid-July already and the house still needs cleaning!  The monarda are particularly robust this year and, miracle of miracles, no mildew on them!  These, next to the barn are actually much darker in real life than it shows on my computer ~ they're quite dark purple/pink and I thought they'd look great with the yellow lilies but that's not quite working -- oh well!  The hollyhocks on the other hand have had a very tough year with fungus; I've cut these pink ones back to the ground.  I brought the seeds for our hollyhocks back with us from our trip to England's Kew Gardens about 12 years or so ago.  Ever since they've delighted us with their vigor and color but this year, well, it's tough.

I'm taking a writing workshop from the U of W this summer - it's fun - and I hope I'll have the inspiration and energy to update this blog more often.