The world of blanks
I've harvested cucumbers—there are a lot of them this year. But I'll start by saying that after moving to the village, I was struck by one thing: people here don't grow horseradish in their garden beds, without which preserving cucumbers is impossible. But that's just my opinion; they apparently think differently. From my own experience, horseradish leaves and roots add... 
I had some large cucumbers left over this year—I just didn't know what to do with them! So, after some thought, I remembered that a few years ago I canned cucumbers as a salad. I opened them in the winter and served them! These are the little cucumbers I had left (and here they are in a 5-liter bucket): I sliced them into rings and poured them straight into a large saucepan:... 
We've had a huge gooseberry harvest this year. The bushes are absolutely covered with large, ripe, translucent, and sweet berries. Some of the harvest has already been eaten, mostly the berries growing on the top. And there are still plenty of berries inside the bush. Gooseberries are very prickly; the spines dig into your fingers, and no one wants to pick them. But we don't want to waste the harvest. The younger children, wearing... 
It's not always possible to freeze herbs, which is what I usually do. This year, my refrigerator broke beyond repair. So, while we're saving up for a new one, we have to dry them. This is how my parsley and dill turn out: They're green, not yellowish, because I dried them in... 
The felt cherry trees at the dacha are ripe. This spring they bloomed profusely. But for some reason there are very few berries; only one old tree has its branches covered in red berries. Either the frost damaged the blossoms, or the rain washed them away. But we had plenty of berries to eat, and the other day we picked the rest. Because the birds want to eat them too, and they can... 
I've already written about kombucha and its benefits for the human body. Now about the most important thing: how to grow it. In reality, there are countless recipes, but I'm only sharing those I've personally tried. Incidentally, after browsing the internet, I tried to master new kombucha recipes, but most of them... 
Our family loves mushrooms, so we couldn't ignore kombucha, which isn't specifically related to mushrooms, but has nevertheless been studied by mycologists. And mycologists, as we know, study absolutely all types of mushrooms. It has many names, but is most often referred to as tea kvass, Japanese mushroom, or Manchurian mushroom. It's known... 
This year (2022), the weather has been kind to us, so we've had a good harvest of almost every vegetable. Yesterday, we brought tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, carrots, and eggplants from the dacha. These are the essential ingredients for making a delicious winter snack. I'll say right away that the recipe doesn't call for specific quantities of vegetables—I always do it by eye, but I stick to these... 
On Saturday, our eldest son brought us two boxes of plums, unexpectedly, without warning. Do what you want. I thought I was done with berry and fruit preserves. Well, I'll still make a couple of jars of apple jam and grape preserves, and that's it for sweet preserves. And then there was this huge amount of plums. We gave half of the small box to our grandson. My husband took the other half... 
That evening, my husband brought blueberries—two plastic bags. The berries at the bottom of the bags were bruised, and I knew I needed to make jam immediately. I'd never made jam from blueberries, never frozen them, and I can't even imagine how they grow in the forest. I tried the berries themselves, and they reminded me of serviceberries, only serviceberries are very sweet, while blueberries are different...