Bark and Bloom

Canning Pickles

Alan | Sunday, August 1st, 2010 | No Comments »

Two years ago I wrote about a cucumber glut and a fresh pickle recipe. Last year, our cucumbers didn’t do so well, and I didn’t plant nearly as many. The 2010 garden was planted with three varieties of cucumbers but in what I thought were realistic, appropriate quantities – two hills a piece with about 3 plants per hill.

two cucumber hills climbing tomato cages

It turns out 18 cucumber plants is way too many. In my defense, I was still rebounding from last year’s poor garden-cucumber relationship. I know, it’s unhealthy.

3 varieties: Lemon, Suhyo tk, Homemade Pickles

That unhealthy relationship has led to some nice cucumber salads, several trips to local food banks (they welcome fresh produce donations), and the realization that canning pickles isn’t so hard.

Step 1: Collect and wash cucumbers

Only one of our varieties is actually a pickling kind – I’m sure the others would likely do fine, but they wouldn’t look like pickles. Aesthetics are important.

Step 2: Slice cucumbers into halves or spears

I found some fresh-pack dill pickling canning recipes. Fresh-packing means there is no soaking or cooking of the cucumber for days/weeks, but it does still call for several ingredients. I was at the store purchasing quart jars when I noticed some packaged mixes. Much simpler than purchasing all the ingredients separately. Perhaps I have sacrificed on overall pickling potential, but I wasn’t really setting out to win any awards. I just wanted to can some pickles.

Steps 3-8: Follow instructions on pickling mix package

I’ve used two different pickling mixes now: Mrs. Wages and Ball, both Kosher Dill mixes. They appear about the same, but Mrs. Wages is a slightly larger package making an additional quart jar. That’s good if you have many cucumbers, but not good if you have a small stove that requires a smaller hot-water canner.

Please note that I refrained from using the following puns and word-plays when writing this posting: