It's Pickle Day Hooray!

[Adalaide]

I'm still more or less feeling like hell from my incident with gluten last Monday. Aches, pains, and generally exhausted. Unfortunately, the world doesn't stop turning and wait for me. (Although I'd like to think sometimes that the world does revolve around me. ) So, that makes today PICKLE DAY! Tomorrow too probably. I've learned over the past few years that as long as I'm not so tired that I literally can't hold my head up, I can push through. So, I'm armed with excessive amounts of Dew (I know... don't lecture, I won't stop) and at my pickles.

I have some surprise downtime this afternoon though. I got three lugs of cucumbers washed and soaking in ice baths. My jars are all washed and sanitized. My garlic is peeled, all six bulbs ugh!!! At least I won't be attacked by vampires for at least a month while I stink. All I can do now is wait to pull those suckers out of the ice and get to slicing, jarring, boiling, pouring. It is gonna be a looong night. When we finish tonight though we'll know how many more days we need to spend working on it, I think we probably want about 100 or so pints to get us through the year. Mostly dill and maybe a few batches of bread and butter which I horde all for myself.

Know what sucks though? There is really only one true downside to making pickles, and it's that they aren't ready right away. When you make jams or other delicious things you can just eat them right away. Pickles take patience which is something I'm not so awesome at.

[GottaSki]

Know what sucks though? There is really only one true downside to making pickles, and it's that they aren't ready right away. When you make jams or other delicious things you can just eat them right away. Pickles take patience which is something I'm not so awesome at.

Yummy!

Sounds like you should hide one pint of bread and butter pickles in with your pickling supplies so that next year you can celebrate the completion of your duties on Pickle Day

[Adalaide]

Ohmygosh... I can finally SIT!!! Just past 11 here and I'm finally getting to some leftovers and a heaping bowl of cucumber salad for supper. I had a KIND bar to get me through the night. I am beat, that's for sure. I want to do another lug but it'll have to wait until next week.

For now we have 18 pints of bread and butter, 41 pints and 11 quarts of dill all heat processed. We also did 5 pints and 7 quarts of refrigerator dills.

Your idea on saving a jar next year? Brilliant! I could almost kiss you.

[Bubba's Mom]

I made 22 pints of dill pickles/hot pepper mix (like Tony Packos), 10 pints of garlic dill spears(for me), and 2 quarts of baby dills.

I love making pickles and hadn't done it in years. Recently when we were at the Farmer's market my hubby asked why I don't make them anymore. I decided to surprise him a couple of days later and made the pickles and peppers. I enjoyed the process so much..and I still had dill left over..so I got more pickles and made the spears and baby dills.

It's so easy! Clean the cukes and cut up. Add 1 clove garlic and 1 head of dill to each sterilized jar, then fill with the cukes and peppers ladle in the hot brine, add lids and process in a hot water bath. Remove and let cool. AND..wait for the wonderful ping sound of the jars sealing.

My son saw that I had made pickles and opened a jar..literally 6 hours after I made them. He said they were fantastic, but I couldn't imagine them being any good ater such a short time. I had to taste them even though I can't really do spicy right now. They were good!

How do you make refrigerator pickles?

[Adalaide]

There are lots of recipes all over the internet for refrigerator pickles. Open Original Shared Link is the one my hubby likes so it's what we use. I recommend waiting a bit longer than a day before you start eating them though and to be honest, they aren't exactly to my taste.

Oh my gosh, the ping!!! That is one of the best sounds in the whole world. It is the sound of a job well done, but more than that. It is the sound of knowing that job well done will be rewarded with deliciousness if you just have a bit if patience. I couldn't help cracking the world's biggest smile every time I heard it all day, even when all I could think about was how much everything hurt and how I couldn't wait to finish and take painkillers. PING! PING PING PING!!! :D

I've never done spicy ones, I'm just not that adventurous. I know what I like and I more or less stick to it. Pretty much doing what my grammy used to do. I actually did a whole quart that was about half pickles and half garlic though. OMG... I could live off pickled garlic I think.

[Bubba's Mom]

Thanks for the link to the recipe! I like to try ones that others have tried and like. The addition of the spring onion is a bit different and sounds really good.

I think I'd like to try some of the fridge pickles?

Mooove over broccoli. (the market had it for 39 cents a bunch..I got lots)