NewlyWoodwards

an unconventional home

Yes I can – dill pickles

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I love pickles. I still remember the giant dill pickles at the local roller-skating rink. I would always bring 50 cents to buy one. Yum!
Today, my pickle of choice are Claussen pickles. But, now, I decided to try out pickle-making for myself.
When I met up with Jen last weekend, she asked me if I’d like some cucumbers from her own garden. Since I had only picked a few cucumbers and she had picked hundreds, I said, yeah! I wanted to try pickling, too.
When Jen says she’s bringing you cucumbers, she isn’t messing around. This is what she brought me. An entire sink-full. (And, I’d like to note, I told her I’d bring her some onions, and TOTALLY FORGOT. I’m so terrible.)

And, I used a recipe that Jen copied for me.

It was quite simple, with only a few ingredients.

Dill pickles
Wash 3- or 4-inch cucumbers. Pack loosely into hot jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. To each quart add 3 or 4 heads fresh dill and 1 teaspoon mustard seed. For each quart combine 2 cups water, 1 cup vinegar and 1 tablespoon pickling salt; bring to boiling. Pour hot pickling liquid over the cucumbers, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath (quarts) 20 minutes.

Some of the cucumbers were small enough to put in whole. Others had to be sliced or quartered. They are so cute.
Now, I just have to be patient. They say to wait 4-6 weeks before eating them. And, then I will be scarfing those 15 quarts of pickles. Here are all the jars that got moved into the basement.
Canning is so fun!

On the canning agenda:
Pizza sauce
Pickles
Pickled zucchini
Salsa
Tomatoes
Pepper jam
Pickled yellow peppers
Zucchini salsa (thanks to Amber Waves of Grain, this was added to my list)

Comments

  1. yummy … i LOVE dill pickles. these are the times that i wish we had more storage … the farmer’s market JUST got picking cucs in … maybe i’ll do a small batch.

  3. Oh those look so tasty! My grandma actually just sent me several pickle recipes and one is very close to what you used, but the others are a little different and for different “types” of how to do pickles. If you are interested, go to my website, click on the “email me” button and I’ll share! You may not need them this year but never hurts to have recipes, I think anyways. 🙂

  4. Oh those look so tasty! My grandma actually just sent me several pickle recipes and one is very close to what you used, but the others are a little different and for different “types” of how to do pickles. If you are interested, go to my website, click on the “email me” button and I’ll share! You may not need them this year but never hurts to have recipes, I think anyways. 🙂

  7. Okay, so I already wrote this once… but blogger ate it. So hopefully I’m not posting twice! 🙂 You’re making me want to get back to canning some more stuff this weekend — more jam and some of that yummy pizza sauce. I’m also trying to convince my husband to make more salsa. He made some a couple years ago and it was SO GOOD. You’re totally rocking the canning… you go girl! 😉

  11. I would have a hard time waiting…they look really yummy! What a nice friend to bring you all of those cucumbers. Enjoy! You are doing a great job with your canning.

  13. That’s definitely not enough pickles. You should probably make more.

    I once ate pickles with every lunch and dinner for like 6 months because I was on a diet. Guess who can’t eat pickles anymore? Meh.

  15. Yummmy…..they look wonderful. Make sure to save a can for me. The picture of the jars on your counter looks like something from a magazine!