08/09/2026
When I was young there wasn't a ton I remember about my great grandpa Kark but 2 things stand out and I hold dear in my heart because sitting with him and listening to his stories was something special.
I would walk into the sap house and the sweet smell of maple syrup would hit my nose and there he would be in his rocking chair listening to his radio talk show and boiling sap.
The 2nd thing was his pickles. When we first moved into the white house on the hill I remember finding pickle jars in the basement. Dad and I sat on the step out front and started eating them. They were the best pickles I had ever had even though I have no clue how old they were at that time π. After we ran out of those pickles, regular pickles just didn't add up.
When I became an adult I was on a mission when I started canning to learn his recipe. In our family I am not sure there is 1 recipe that was ever written down π. So I took a basic pickle recipe and just started playing with it year after year until I got it right. I don't think it's 100 percent yet and it probably never will be but it's the closest I could come up with.
Today Kam asked if he could help me make pickles. And together we made pickles that hopefully will become another family memory passed down for another generation. It made my heart full sharing this time and recipe with him.β€οΈ
The garden is producing a ton this year. We have tons of cucumbers, yellow squash, tomatoes, eggplant, corn, butternut squash and acorn squash and pumpkins coming along. Make sure you stop at the farm stand and grab some and keep checking back as things ripen we will have more and more to put out. Thank you for all your support.