Pickle Fest ’09

Once upon a time many years ago, my mom made homemade pickles.  They blew me away and I’ve been wanting them ever since.  I’ve been on a quest for decent pickles for a while now, to no avail.  Why do the pickles at the store have to have preservatives in them?  Isn’t the fact that they are floating in vinegar and salt enough to preserve them?  And didn’t people begin making pickles as a way to preserve food?

I mostly used this recipe, except I added a bit of pickling spice to each jar ’cause that’s how I roll.

I bought eight pounds of pickling cucumbers at The Farm at $2 a pound.

I put the cucumbers on ice and put in some Hank Williams (Senior, please).  I gathered my ingredients.

I peeled a ton of garlic.

I began to prepare the cucumbers while the canner heated up.

I ended up cutting the cucumbers to get them to fit in the jars.

I added the brine to the jars, and processed the jars in two batches.

After two hours of work, I had twelve jars of pickles.

I already cracked into a jar, even though I was supposed to wait eight weeks.  They’re good, yes, but a bit flabby.  I really wanted super crisp crunchy pickles.  The more reading I do, the more I see that some people do not process them in a hot water bath at all, so essentially they are uncooked.  This is perhaps what I should have done.  Also, while the pickling spice looks very nice in the jars, I feel that the spice is a bit much.  And they need way more garlic next time.

Guess I’d better start eating them so I can make more.