Pickling

Tonight was all about the pickle. I've been wanting to can for a while, but I never had anyone to teach me, and I always heard it was very hard, time consuming, HOT, and very possible to make someone sick. So I guess I was a little scared off. But, I planted pickling cucumbers in the garden because I wanted to make pickles, how hard could it be?

And we've been getting lots of cucumbers in the garden, but I keep having to toss them because I pick them but then just leave them in the fridge. WHAT A WASTE! Pat was getting annoyed, and I was feeling guilty.

So I poked around the web, asked a few friends, and bought my supplies. And today, I faced my fear.

that's right, 14 jars

As nervous as I was, the more I talked about pickles, the more excited I got. And the more I wanted to go further than just a few dills. So today, I went to my favorite local pick your own farm and stocked up.

I know, you're thinking, "but wait, don't you have these things in your own garden?" Well, I do, but I figured go big or go home (we bought a 12 pack of jars and already had the other 2), plus I wanted everything to be really fresh.

The final count was 7 jars dill pickle spears, 4 jars green beans, 1 jar cayennes, (I used the same brine liquid for all of these) 1 jar bread and butter pickles, and 1 mini jar watermelon rind (these both used the same brine also, which sounds a little weird).

dill spears

The dill brine was 2 cups white vinegar, 2 cups water, 1/4 cup salt and lots of seasoning (dill, mustard seeds, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, whole clove, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, and who knows what else, I looked at so many recipes that I just created my own with what had.)

You're supposed to use a non-metal pot to boil the brine, so I just kept remaking it because I didn't have a very large pot .

One thing I did read somewhere was to cut off both ends, it keeps them from getting as soggy.

bread and butter style

For these, you're supposed to use apple cider vinegar. But I didn't make a shopping list, so I forgot it. Instead, I used rice vinegar, and I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed. I used 1 cup rice vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp salt, and some seasoning. (I used mustard seeds, a little turmeric, coriander, and whole clove.)

pickled watermelon rind

I don't know much about pickled watermelon rind, but I figured it was worth a shot since I did have the one small jar. I used the exact same brine and the "bread and butter" style pickles. We'll see how it goes.












For everything, I put the veggies in the sanitized jar, then filled with brine, capped and boiled for 10 minutes. Then, I put them all upside-down (except for when I forgot, and I heard one pop! Oh no! Guess I will have to eat those first!) to leave overnight.

Now I can't wait for the next 3 weeks to pass.

(Oh and by the way, it was HOT and a little time consuming, but not so bad.)