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Pickles for the Future

I don't can much anymore, but after I retired, we put in a big garden every summer. We had a raspberry patch, plus all the vegetables we needed. Every year we made our own sauerkraut, tomato juice, and pickles. My family especially liked the pickles, so I always had plenty of them on hand. Since they are all gone from home now and my husband is deceased, I no longer have a garden, but go to the Farm Market and buy cucumbers for pickles when I need to can.

This past summer (1995), when my grandson, Scott, stayed with me for three weeks, we were eating lunch one day and Scott was eating a pickle. He very seriously asked me if I would put in my will that whatever pickles I have left when I die could be his. I decided that that was little enough to request, so I went to the Farm Market, bought some more cucumbers, and made 17 more quarts of pickles. Scott was 10 years old at the time. He must really like my pickles, so I'd better keep some on hand. The recipe follows:

¾ cup sugar
½ cup salt
3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
Green or Dry Dill (1 head per jar)
1 quart vinegar
1 quart water

Combine sugar, salt, vinegar and water. Tie spices in a cheesecloth bag, add to vinegar mixture, simmer 15 minutes. Pack cucumbers into hot jars, put a head of dill in each jar. Also add to each jar 1 clove garlic and ½ teaspoon mustard seed. Heat brine to boiling. Pour boiling hot vinegar mixture over cucumbers leaving ¼-inch head space. l-½ recipes of this brine makes about 8 quarts of dill pickles. Set jars into canner making sure they are covered with water. Heat until pickles have changed color. Do not boil. Then take them out immediately.