Pickling

We went to a birthday party at a farm on Sauvie's Island and before we left we checked out the farm stand.  They had pickling cucumbers AND dillweed so I bought a big bag to make some pickles. It's been several years since I've done it, and this year I actually followed through. (I think last year I bought cucumbers, but couldn't find dillweed and the cucumbers went bad.) I had stocked up on apple cider vinegar though so I had everything I needed with the exception of garlic.

I used this recipe as a guide. I bought a huge bag of pickles though so I had to quadruple it. I also decided to cut the cucumbers into spears this time so that I could fit more of them into the jars. I was worried I didn't have enough wide mouth jars and I was right. So I did a quadruple batch of spears, then I went to Mirador Community store to stock up on more wide mouth jars and a few other canning tools.

I did the remainder of the pickles as slices for sandwiches. Several of the recipes I saw on line recommend adding grape leaves to the jar to keep the pickles crunchy. I don't have access to those, but I'll have to keep an eye out for them.