Aren’t they beautiful?

Why is it that when I see a counter with 10 beautiful jars of homemade garlic dill pickles that I just sigh and have to take a picture, they are so pretty? Is that weird? I dunno.

I think it’s because we took $10 worth of cukes, and 2 bucks worth of vinegar, garlic and spices and we made 10 quarts of pickles, that would have cost at least $30 to $40 dollars in the store. But it’s not just the money. We used all local cukes and garlic… and water too! (g) The vodka and the vinegar were from around here… Actually, both from Pennsylvania. (Weird) Still, it’s not even the local thing, it’s just knowing how to do it and knowing that they will taste fantastic in a week, hopefully. And that WE MADE THEM… I think that’s really the kicker there. They are handmade and watched over. Very very cool.

We even added about 10 cukes from our OWN garden… yes, hand grown by US. I wish there were more, but we have a lot on the vine, just not ready yet. But don’t worry, we’ll be making MORE pickles soon because we love to share and I have a few friends hooked on them already. It’s so much fun to make and share goodies like this.

Next week we are doing jams and fruit butters… can’t wait. I hope we can actually go picking our own as well. That would be even cooler.

Here is the recipe that we tried today. We’ll know in a week how they took.

Vodka Pickles

About 10 small pickles or 5 larger cukes
2 cups of water
1/8 cup of salt
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup white vinegar
6-10 cloves of fresh garlic
3-6 tablespoons of pickling spice mix

Sterilize your jar and lids in boiling water, set aside to cool slightly. Wash and cut cukes how you wish… slices, chunks, halves or wholes. Pack in the hot jars being careful not to handle them too much. Use a sterilized fork or tongs to pack the jars. Smash or press garlic into each jar, your choice. (We did two cloves per jar) and add pickling spice as well, a heaping tablespoon for smaller jars, two for quart jars. Boil together the liquids, bring to a boil and then take off the heat and allow to cool. It’s best if you allow it to cool enough that it’s still hot, but not so hot that you can’t touch it. Pour warm brine into each jar, covering the cukes and allowing 1/2 headspace in each jar. Seal up tight, give a little shake to mix up the garlic and spices and then allow to cool completely. Store in the frig, one week and test. Should be READY TO EAT!!! Yum!

Part of the fun of canning is trying different old family recipes and then making our own favorites out of these treasures. You can dink with the recipes a bit, alter them to become your own! Since this is only our second year experimenting with canning and all, it’s still a lot of fun to test things out. After we do jams and butters next week, we want to try and make good old bread and butter pickles and actually can/process them! Got a recipe to try out.

And considering my 41 tomato plants are growing like beasts outside… I think we are going to be putting up a LOT of tomato sauce, my sweet pepper salsa and ketchup as well as stewed tomatoes too!!! Going to be a fun summer of canning!