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Garden Madness 2008: Part 6, the Pickling
I think the vast quantities of rain we got last week took their toll on the cucumber vines, which were small and shriveled when I checked on them this afternoon, but there were still enough cukes that I was clearly going to have to make pickles:
I try to make at least one batch of pickles every year. Last year, the cucumbers did very poorly for some reason, but the CSA came through with surprise okra, so I pickled two very delicious jars of it. This year's cucumbers are being pickled with a standard salt/vinegar/sugar/water brine and a bunch of spices: black and yellow mustard seed, allspice, cloves, dill seed, a little dried red pepper, green peppercorns, garlic, and fresh dill from the CSA.
I wish the pickles would stay this green after processing. There's probably a chemical trick to this that my Ball canning book doesn't describe – I'd say baking soda, but adding baking soda to a brine is literally a recipe for disaster. (Or a volcano, anyway.)
After processing in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, they look a bit grayer. All the jar tops have sealed properly, though, so the pickles will keep for a year or so now. As if they'll last that long before being eaten.
I try to make at least one batch of pickles every year. Last year, the cucumbers did very poorly for some reason, but the CSA came through with surprise okra, so I pickled two very delicious jars of it. This year's cucumbers are being pickled with a standard salt/vinegar/sugar/water brine and a bunch of spices: black and yellow mustard seed, allspice, cloves, dill seed, a little dried red pepper, green peppercorns, garlic, and fresh dill from the CSA.
I wish the pickles would stay this green after processing. There's probably a chemical trick to this that my Ball canning book doesn't describe – I'd say baking soda, but adding baking soda to a brine is literally a recipe for disaster. (Or a volcano, anyway.)
After processing in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, they look a bit grayer. All the jar tops have sealed properly, though, so the pickles will keep for a year or so now. As if they'll last that long before being eaten.
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Someday I'll go to the trouble of making half-sours, which is an entirely different pickling process. I love really garlicky half-sours.