7/9/11

Princess Cara’s Garden: Making Pickles

harvest2  todaysharvest

Princess Cara’s Garden has been putting off a great harvest every week of tomatoes, green peppers but mostly CUCUMBERS! OMG. What am I to do with all these cucumbers? I can only make & eat but so much cucumber salad….and then it hit me…

 

MAKE PICKLES!

 

So, I became one with Mr.Go.ogl.e and looked up how to make pickles. I found me a all in one kit that came with a book for canning/preserving, got me some jars and the ingredients needed based on the type of pickles I chose (HAMBURGER DILLS) and when it all arrived this week…I GOT BUSY.

  supplies2  supplies

My grocery store (Gi.an.t) had all of the extra ingredients I needed (Ball Salt, Kosher Dill Mix w/Pickle Crisp, Labels and more) and I only had to get the Kosher Dill Mix & Labels as my pot came with everything else I needed. I mixed the water, vinegar & mix in a pot and brought to a boil. At the same time I filled the canner pot with water and got it started towards a boil to “process” the pickles once I got them in the jars, put the jars in the dishwasher to sterilize and the lids on the stove. Once I got that going I washed all the cucumbers and got to slicing to make hamburger/sandwich dills.

 slices  brine

Once I had all my slices ready, I pulled the jars out of the dishwasher and packed them with slices. After packing the slices,I poured the boiling mixture of dill mix into each jar leaving a 1/2”  space for expansion. Put a lid on then add the twist cap – hand tight.

  jars jars2

pickels3

Now that you have your jars packed. You place them in the canning pot for approx. 15min to “process”, remove from pot and let sit for 24 hours. At the end of 24 hours, check your seals and then let sit (somewhere where the temp is around 75 degrees) for about 4-6 weeks and….

 

 WHA LAH! Pickles!

    processing  pickels

pickels2

Green Acres is where I want to be!