The First Batch of Pickles Has Arrived!

I don't know if you can tell, but I really love pickles.  Almost to a fault.  Since I have started canning my home grown goodies, I have made a point to can as many of my own pickles as possible.  The past several years have not been very kind in the cucumber department, but this year I think I will be happy when the first frost hits and brings an end to the cucumber growing season.  In the past couple of weeks the cucumber harvest has started trickling in by twos and threes.  I had mostly been able to keep up with them until the last couple of days by eating a few fresh sliced with salt and vinegar - a good instant pickle replacement.  But then I found more than a couple cucumbers that needed picking....I found about 15.  I knew that I could never eat that many in a day, and since I found that many in a single day, I knew I had to become diligent about keeping them picked or I would end up with monster cucumbers that are no good for pickling.  I will start saving the small batches in the fridge for a day or two before I start the pickling process.  I like to make sure that I have enough to make it worth my time and effort to boil the water and process the jars.  One jar at a time is not very efficient.  Once I have enough cucumbers to make several jars I will can a batch.  Right now I will probably have to make a batch every 2-3 days.

The batch I made today was good old fashioned dill pickles.  They had a good recipe on the back of the Morton pickling salt box that mostly matched up with the recipe that I found in my Ball Canning Book.  The only difference was that it called for less salt overall, so I thought it would be a good one to try.  I have used one of the Ball recipes in the past and have found the end product to be far too salty.  Early this morning before I got ready for work I quickly sliced the cucumbers into spears and added them to the brine I had mixed up the night before and set in the fridge to chill.

When I got home I filled my large pot with water and set it on the stove to boil.  Meanwhile, I heated the pickling liquid in another pot on the stove.  I always make a full batch of the liquid, and refrigerate what I don't use so the next time I make pickles I can just use up what I have.  Since I think I will be canning a batch of pickles every few days, this will save me a little time in the whole process.  Once everything was boiling, I added a spring of dill and a clove of garlic to each jar and then packed them as full as I could with pickles and topped them off with the liquid.  This batch was only three pints, so I didn't have to use very much.  I reserved about two quarts of the liquid for the next batch.  I boiled them for another twenty minutes and then let them cool for five minutes before I removed the jars from the canner.  I will let them cool overnight before I remove the rings and label them for storage.  I always date my canned goods and never eat anything that has been stored for over a year.  I did forget to add the mustard seed to this batch....I will have to remember that the next time since I do like the flavor that it gives to the pickles.

Here they are in all their glory....the very first pickles of the year.  I couldn't be happier!