Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Pickling and Then Pickling Some More

I know I’ve been growing lax in my updating but here is why: this weekend we bought and dealt with 22 pounds of cucumbers. (Thought we’d learned our lesson from the currants? You should have known better.)

Since our cucumbers aren’t being productive enough that we have enough at any one time to can we went to Schartner’s and bought a box each of small and large pickling cucumbers.

(We also bought their French fries, which they cut and fry right in front of you, delicious with vinegar, and two raspberry bushes which Dad was forced to plant this week).

The cucumbers deteriorate rapidly so canning commenced immediately. We started with a 5 pint batch of bread and butter cucumbers but when we saw how small a dent that made in one of the boxes we decided to double that amount and ended up making 10 jars worth.

The next day we made 6 pints worth of dill slices but still, so many cucumbers! Even after eating cucumber and butter sandwiches for lunch we still had too many. (Well actually they were cucumber and margarine sandwiches since someone is lactose intolerant but they are delicious anyway because I gussy up the marg with generous amounts of chopped herbs like parsley, thyme, chives and rosemary.)

(Bread and butter on the left, dill slices on the right)

We had run out of steam so we resorted to brining the rest of the cucumbers in a large crock. You’ll find out how that worked out in several weeks.

That’s all for now, I’m exhausted just thinking about cucumbers, I may be too traumatized to even eat the pickles.

3 comments:

  1. Love your blog!I hope that someday when my kids grow up I can do some of the things you are currently doing! Keep up the hard work!

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  2. Thanks! My mom got me started early doing these types of things which is probably why I'm so interested now. It's never too early! (Well maybe you should hold off on the things that involved boiling liquid until they're a little older.) Glad you're enjoying my blog!

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  3. If you're buried in pickles, try making Dill Pickle Soup. It's a Slavic thing, and there are seemingly hundreds of recipes for it on the web. I was aware of Pickle Soup for years, but never went out of my way to try making it because, frankly, it didn't sound that good. I finally made some, and it's good. VERY GOOD! (Even better when fortified with extra dill.) Everyone who tried it loved it. Pickle Soup can be eaten hot or cold, and it would be a natural accompanyment for dogs and burgers at a picnic.

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