Pickles!!

We have this BEAUTIFUL garden this year!!  It is producing so far beyond our expectations that we are starting to freeze/preserve vegetables now.  This weekend we decided to make pickles out of all the cucumbers.  I have made jams & jellies but never pickles before so I started researching the internet for options.  I found this great site that breaks all the different methods down for people like me. http://www.pickyourown.org/makingpickles.htm

So I found out that you can't just use any cucumbers. The younger, bumpier ones do not have many seeds and make the best pickles.  I had a lot of those and I did mix some larger ones in w/ the spears and they did fine.  I learned that even when you think your jars are packed, pack more.  I had about an inch of brine in each jar once everything was processed.

I thought that since cucumbers were just coming in (for most people) that the ingredients to make pickles would be plentiful, NO.  I went to 4 stores- bought jars @ WalMart and Kmart but neither of them had the packets mentioned on the website, nor did they have pickling salt.  My Walgreens didn't have any canning supplies.  I finally found most of what I needed to get started @ Tractor Supply but even they were out of the dill supplies.  I decided to make bread & butter and go "old school" on the dills. 

I learned that you can make the dill by using pickling salt, dill, garlic, vinegar & water.  There is a great recipe on the back of the Mrs. Wages pickling salt bag.  My advise, cut the salt back on it, they were REALLY salty! I like the recipe on the "pick your own" website better for the dill pickles.   When I made jellies before, the jars came w/ labels, mine didn't this time.  I decided to make Bread & Butter chips and Dill Spears so that I could tell the difference until I printed labels for my jars. 

This was so much easier than I thought!  Jelly is more time consuming and much messier.  All of our jars sealed within a couple of hours and we used the dills in potato salad today. Yum! 

I love that this is an all natural method! My boys will be eating these!

Finished product!! Dill spears & Bread/Butter chips. Notice the large amount of liquid on the chips - really pack them down in there before the brine.

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So, Don't be afraid! Go to your Farmer's Market, buy some cucumbers, make some pickles it's easy.  Just make sure you have all the supplies and ingredients the day before so you're not running around shopping and then making pickles.