relish? use some of them in the Ball recipe for fiesta salsa if you also have tomatoes and onions? All the fresh cucumber-tomato salad you could eat?

I figure I could add something years later since other people added comments a year later. I moved into a rental house in Boulder, CO that had very well done perennial beds around the time this original post was written. It's been neglected for 7 or 8 years or so, especially the last 3 years. I can tell from Google maps the last year the lambs really took out for the rest of the beds and even the yard. I've been digging, pulling and now have covered an entire bed with clear plastic to kill the seeds before I'll consider planting there. The roots have formed an impenetrable mass and are sometimes thicker than my thumb. They have smaller roots finding them all together. I think if I were building a prairie Sod house I would be thrilled to find these. I'm constantly facing masses of sprouts and churning them over with hopes of killing most of them. We live in a Bee Safe neighborhood, and I don't think Round Up would have helped much anyway. I put an ad on craigslist and I've had many people haul garbage bags of plants away but eventually I got tired of answering the text-I think I had probably 50 people take A wavering amounts of these plants. I've never had them spread before but I stay on top of them, possibly since I use them in flower arrangements or pull them out as soon as they stray out of their designated area. I've discovered I now despise them and I don't think I'll ever let them grow again. I see them downwind from our yard and I'm tempted to go pull them now to spare them future agony- especially since it's likely the seeds came from here in the first place.

Just to get you started, try typing "catch a call" in your address bar. Lots of sites will come up where you can read about them and buy one--not free but darn close because for less than one month phoneline fee ($21. on Amazon now) you can buy it once and never pay a monthly fee. Two different models. Both require call waiting on your phone and if you want it to ID callers of course you need that service on your phone too.I used one (just the basic model) for years until I got broadband last summer and it worked great. Different prices on all sites so check around. Be careful. I came across something offering a free download and immediate service--think it was called Callwave. It was a free trial but didn't give info about prices when free trial was up. Also came across a website for Phonetray.com at shopzilla. Looks like a cheaper version of Catch a Call. $15 to buy and no monthly fee, but I didn't read completely. Also requires call waiting, etc. Just read carefully. Hope this helps. Sandy

We like this simple relish. Good in curried chicken salad, or mix w/ yogurt for raita. This year I tried a batch omitting the onion and using more cukes, and replacing the mustards and cumin with some garlic, dill seed, lemon juice and a little preserved lemon. Hopefully it will be tzatziki-ish. Indian-Style Cucumber Relish From Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp & Margaret Howard 6 cups diced, peeled cucumber (8-12 medium pickling cucumbers) 2 cups thinly sliced onion 1 tablespoon pickling salt (I use kosher) 2 cups white vinegar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds 2 tsp black mustard seeds 2 tsp yellow mustard seeds Place cucumber and onion in a non-reactive bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Let sit for 4 hours (or up to overnight), stirring occasionally. Drain vegetables, rinse twice and drain completely. Combine vinegar sugar, cumin and mustard in a non-reactive pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Add vegetables and return to a boil for 30 seconds. Fill clean, hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Process half-pints or pints in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 6 half-pint jars. This post was edited by katiec on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 17:36