volunteers

Volunteer. Doesn't the word sound so...Nobel? It brings to mind pictures of many hands make light work. Or helping hands heal.

Don't we all want volunteers? Who wouldn't like extra help in the kitchen, or with chores (especially on a farm)?

I don't think I have ever had a thought of volunteers being anything but helpful. Now I will say that there are times...not many...where I have to force volunteer-ism on my children. Really...who wants to go get the mail in the rain or trim a INTENSELY stinky buck's hooves?!

But here is a new thought. There are volunteers that we don't exactly want. For instance... This spring I planted 3 types of melons, tomato, basil, beans, beets, potatoes and sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash and zucchini in the garden and acorn and pumpkin squash in the compost pile.

What I have growing is slightly different. I do have tomato, beet, basil and the potatoes, beans and zucchini. What I also have is acorn squash, pumpkin and cucumbers in the garden. Who knows what is at the compost! I sure hope I get some spaghetti squash (although B won't care!). I purposely didn't plant cukes because last year we had hundreds of them. They were great for chickens and ducks but...how many can you eat?!

So I have volunteer cukes. I guess a few stray seeds made it from the birds to the compost pile somehow and voilà... Plants!  Instead of yummy melons on a hot day, I discovered that there were so many cucumbers that had to be picked...and eaten or given to the poultry. For some reason the goats don't like cukes...go figure. They'd eat a tin can but not organic produce?!!

Since I had 30+ cukes I decided that we should be wise and make pickles. I had 2 jars from 2013 and 7 jars from 2014, so I suppose I did need some more.

I put all the girls to work and we canned 18 quarts worth of dills.  They will be very pale, as the cukes were so large, but still crisp and delicious come winter with a cup of soup!

So...while most volunteers are good, these volunteers gave me lots of extra work. But, true to volunteer-ism, I did reap some benefit from them as well. And after we make a few salads, the rest of them can go to the birds. ;)