Regular dill pickles take about 10 minutes to make. Up to a half-hour if you’re going to can them.
Sweet pickles take a minimum of 7 days.
Day 1: Trim the ends off your cucumbers.
Then pour boiling water over them and let them sit overnight. I think people used to do this in a crock of some sort, but I just used one of my stainless steel pots.
Day 2: They now look like this:
Not as pretty as they used to be! Pour boiling water over them and let them sit again.
Days 3 and 4: repeat day 2.
Day 5: Big excitement! We get to mix up the brine.
It takes nearly a full bag of sugar! And some vinegar. A little salt, and the pickling spices. It smells like Autumn!
Also, it’s time to cut up the cucumbers into whatever size pieces you want. I decided to cut mine into chunks.
Pour the brine over the cucumbers, and let them sit for 2 days. I gave them a stir each morning and night.
Day 7 (or day 8 in my case since we weren’t home on day 7): It’s finally time to can them! Bring everything to a boil, and then pack in hot jars. Can in a boiling-water bath.
I got 6 pints out of my batch. No one else in the family likes them (they all tried one and made faces and icky sounds). My father-in-law has been begging for sweet pickles, so he has a few jars heading his way.
Tagged as:
Pickles
With a little help from Emily and Kevin, I cleaned up the garden today. It had been ignored for far too long. The weeds were taking over, and some of the plants had been attacked by bugs.
We pulled all of the weeds by hand, cut off the old ugly leaves from the zucchini (and pulled up a couple of the plants that were too far gone), cut off the worst leaves from the green beans, and planted some flowers in the “dead zone.”
Some before and after photos:
Hopefully now, with a little babying, the plants will perk up.
Emily has 2 American Girl dolls. First she got Emily (of course!). Last Christmas, she got Molly.
Emily has a swimsuit. Molly does not.
We’re going to a pool party this evening. Both dolls want to attend the party as well, but alas, no swimsuit for Molly! Tragedy!
Enter mom, a half-hour, some scrap fabric, some velcro, a piece of ribbon, and whatever thread happens to already be in the sewing machine. It’s like a Project Runway challenge for the 18-inch set.
Molly now has proper pool party attire.
Tagged as:
Sewing
For future reference, it takes exactly 5 of my little cucumbers, and a half-recipe of the brine to make 2 quarts of pickles.
These went straight to the refrigerator. We love refrigerator pickles. So easy to make (not that canning is difficult, it’s just more steps and more dishes!), and the cukes stay crispy.
The only problem is waiting for them to be ready to eat! It takes a minimum of a week (2 for them to really absorb the flavor).
I checked the cucumber plants last night, and there are a lot of babies plumping up! Next pickling day, I’ll make a batch that isn’t spicy for the kids. I also want to try making some sweet pickles.
Added to this week’s grocery list: Vinegar, garlic, and dill. My little dill plants are growing, but not fast enough to be used for the pickles yet!
Tagged as:
Canning,
Cucumbers,
Pickles
Plus one more that was picked yesterday.
I’m not sure how many jars I’ll get out of these 5, maybe 2 quart jars (not packed tightly). We’ll make refrigerator pickles, using this recipe I used last year.
I’ll make some spicy for the adults, and not as spicy for the kids. Some zucchini will likely be added to the mix as well!
Tagged as:
Cucumbers,
Pickles,
Zucchini
