Todays adventure here on the farm was pickling cucumbers. Olivia's uncle Ed raised more than he knew what to do with and lacking the time to pickle any he brought Liv's mother a bunch, and I mean a bunch! She knew that I would be more than willing to pickle some so we went in partners on them so to speak. Mine are a few days away from being ready to pick and these were free and needed to be preserved so this was great for us both. She had some canning jars and so did I, I had the sugar, viniger and pickling mix that I had picked up a few weeks ago in preparation for my cucumbers. We had all the supplies and were ready to go get pickled. hehe!! Found a great site that has all kinds of canning information. pickyourown.org
all kinds of supplies and a list by state of farms where you can pick your own stuff. Check them out and I know that you will be glad you did. Anyhow, thats where we got our pickling receipe. A few things we learned along the way are.
1. Keep plenty of clean dish towels close by.
2. Get a jar lifter or grabber, oven mitt just don't cut it.
3.Give your self plenty of room to work.
4. Pack your jars tight with cucumbers, otherwise you waste space.
5. Keep your jars in the oven to keep them good and hot. 200 degrees works great.
6. Remember that the jars are HOT and don't grab one until they cool.
Below are the ingredients that we used. Sugar, Vineger and Bread and Butter Pickle Mix.
And ofcourse you have to have cucumbers.
Pour hot mix into jars of cucumbers with a laddle. Becareful, both jars and mix are very hot. Observe my steady hand. hahahahahahhah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Place lids and rings on the jars and then put them into a large pot with the water just above the top of the jars and boil for 10 mins.
These jars are packed correctly.
These are not. We thought we had a lot of cucumbers in these jars but they needed to be packed in there. They will still be fine but that's a lot of wasted space.
By the time we went through all the cucumbers we had a grand total of 17 qts. Not too bad for veggies that someone gave us. We will be enjoying these for some time. I will be taking Ed a few jars for sure. Wonder how his peppers are doing ????? (Grin )
4 comments:
You guys are so far ahead, I won't be making pickles until mid August I bet! In my bread and butter recipe, the sliced cukes are sliced and mixed with salt for a couple of hours, then just heated, that way they won't float. I canned in 4-H many moons ago - and boy, we didn't take the floaters to the fair. Those stayed home and we ate them. Tasted the same, just wouldn't get us a ribbon. Check back on Thursday - I think you'll like post...
Thanks for including the useful link for pick your own. I'll have to look into that site in more depth--it looks very informative. You make canning sound and look easy, and the finished product looks great.
Hey, Chris. I liked your photos of the process - those look like some great pickles! 17 quarts! Whew... that should hold ya over for a while. :)
Ron
Nita, Our garden is really getting ready to burst into the kitchen. Others around us who planted early are already getting their bounty. My floaters ( hehe! funny ) won't win any ribbons of any color at the fair but I hope I get good reviews at home.
Marie, thanks, pick your own is a great site and I catch myself there a lot latley. Really getting into this food preservation and just having a ball doing it. I have a pressure canner/cooker that should be here in a day or two and then, LOOK OUT !!!!
Ron, thanks, we will have pickles running out of our ears, my cucumbers are ready to pick and get canned also. Might have to just eat them all at diner, and belive me we can go through some cuc's
Thanks to all,
Chris
Post a Comment