One of the challenges to gardening is what to do with the output. Gardens produce vegetables and fruit in specific windows of time and it’s difficult to eat everything all at once. We planted these pickling cucumbers with the specific goal of canning them. Hopefully we’ll be better at this by the time the tomatoes are starting to bury us.
The recipe:
~2 lbs pickling cucumbers sliced or left whole
1 1/4 C white vinegar
1 1/4 C water
1/4 C sugar
2 tbsp + 2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
5 or 6 whole pepper corns
1 garlic clove cut in half
1/2 bay leaf
3-4 sprigs of dill (for the seeds)
General Instructions:
- Cut pickles as desired (removing their ends) and pack into two canning jars
- Simmer brine and spices for 15 minutes
- Fill the canning jars with the brine, leaving about a half inch at the top, remove air bubbles. Try to divvy up the spices from the pot into each jar.
- Process in hot water bath. (Exact time seems to vary for recipes between 5 and 15 minutes!) Most canners are suspicious of processing times of less than 10 minutes unless they are going straight into the fridge.
