pickle day

The other day I ordered 20 lbs of pickling cukes and dill from the fruit stand and then promptly forgot about it. When I ordered them, we talked about having them ready for delivery this weekend. On Saturday, after the boy had swimming and a play date, we stopped by the fruit stand on the way home. We bought peaches and nectarines, mini cukes and tomatoes, corn and strawberries and eggplant. I forgot about the pickling cukes and so did the fruit stand guy. He called me later so I swung by later and picked them up. The dill scented the car all the way home and then filled my kitchen with dill perfume once I hoisted the pickles and dill into the kitchen. I started washing cukes to make bread and butter pickles as I remembered them taking a while, what with the slicing of the cukes and onions. I allowed 7 lbs for bread and butter pickles, mainly on a friend's recommendation - as she says - "these pickles rock". She told me the story of how she served them to her mum for lunch one day and her mum said " I'm not really a pickle person". She was convinced to try them because of the whole "they rock" thing and ate lots. So this recipe converts non-pickle people. The rest went for dill pickles, my husband's favorite.

I ended up prepping all the bread and butter pickles

and canning about half of the dill pickles and then I ran out of vinegar and energy. So bright and early Sunday morning I went and bought white vinegar and proceeded on with finishing the dill pickles and then processing the bread and butter pickles. I had one casualty - one jar of dills broke in the water bath (sniff) but I have an impressive array of pickles on the counter - periodically one pops. Such a satisfying sound when canning.

Bread and Butter Pickles (from here)

~ 1 lb of pickling cucumbers, scrubbed
1 medium onion
2 tbsp pickling salt
water
1 c. apple cider vinegar
1 c. sugar
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric

Slice cucumbers and onions very thin and layer in a bowl with the salt. Nearly cover with ice cold water and set aside in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. Drain. Rinse well and drain. Prepare the jars.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil stirring the dissolve the sugar. As soon as it boils add the cucumber mix and bring to a simmer.

Remove from the heat and spoon into the prepared jars allowing for 3/4 to 1 1/2" of headspace. Pour the pickling liquid over the pickles, evenly distributing the seeds. Cap and process in a water bath for ~ 10 minutes.

this truck appeared curtesy of the boy - he decided it didn't belong on his construction dig in the back yard