And the Pickling Begins

I was only able to keep up with eating my fresh cucumbers for a week or two once they starting coming on.  Each day the number of cucumbers that I pull off the vine increases and soon I will be filling baskets with them every morning.  It only took a few days to fill a gallon bag with my fresh harvests so I decided that it was time to get started on the first batch of dill pickles for the year.  This year I planned a bit better and should have no shortage of dill for my pickling needs.  I only planted one row with dill, but the plants are huge and heavy with flower heads.  I also used the garlic that I harvested last month to flavor my home grown pickles.

The morning that I filled the gallon bag with pickling cucumbers I made quick work of washing all of them and trimming the flower ends off the fruit.  I try to pick them when they are about three to four inches long, but some get away for too long and they get sliced into spears so they fit into the jars better.  The washed and trimmed cucumbers go into a brine solution to soak for about twelve hours before they move on to the next stage of canning.

The next stage involves draining the brine from the cucumbers and packing them into hot jars along with a head of dill, a clove of garlic and a couple teaspoons of mustard seed.  I then top the jars off with my pickling solution mixture leaving head space for canning and into the boiling water bath they go.  I process my quart jars for twenty five minutes at this elevation and let them cool down for ten minutes before I remove them from the water bath.  I allow the jars to cool overnight and then remove the rings for storage.

Here are the first four jars of dill pickles for the season with many more in the works outside on the vine.