Thursday, August 24, 2006

getting pickled



My DSL connection is running slow tonight, as it usually does when it rains, not that I mind the rain.

I took the day off, since I have to give up this Saturday in service to the state, and because The Hermit had business to do. And I had pickles waiting to be made. Canning is a big time commitment; not the canning itself, but the preparation. I had to locate enough wide-mouth canning jars, wash the dust and bugs out of them, and cut up garlic and harvest more dill heads. I found out it takes a long time to get the canner to boiling on my stove.

The end product was eight quarts, a full canner load. Two of these were my first batch of fermented dill pickles. They look really bad, since the brine gets cloudy from fermentation and someone happened to spill some red Kool-Aid in the bucket yesterday! But I checked them carefully, and they weren't slimy or smelly, so they were good. I have about four more quarts bubbling away in another bucket.

The way my family goes through pickles, this batch will last all of two months, maybe.

7 comments:

Madcap said...

Well, they look good to me. We've got a couple more weeks before we can crack the seal on one of the jars I did up to see if they worked.

I love having a row of canned goods up on the shelf. It looks so homey and prepared.

barefoot gardener said...

Beautiful pickles! That brings back memories....

R.Powers said...

We go through pickles like crazy. Daughter Emma asks for a big jar of her own kosher dills for her birthday.
I used to do the same thing ...

Deb said...

madcap- I hid the grungy looking ones behind the nice ones. But at any rate, you're right, nothing like the sight of some canned goods to bring grounding, secure thoughts to mind!

barefoot gardener- I hope they are not just memories, but dreams.

FC- That's why I think I need to devote not one but two raised beds to nothing but pickling cucumbers next year! I mean, there are much worse things a daughter could ask for...homemade pickles are a blessing.

Kathie said...

Beautiful!

PJ said...

What wonderful pickles! I love pickles...to eat and to photograph and to saw... have to laugh because Pluto was thrown out of the lineup...'my mother just served us nice pickles'

Anonymous said...

Those pickles look great!