Dill Pickles

My pickling cucumbers are finally producing enough cucumbers to pickle. I usually gather them for about a week and then make pickles with them. To prep the cucumbers, scrub them to remove the bristles and remove the blossom end and discard. I recommend hand slicing them because when I have used a mandolin, they have turned out to thin and then they were mushy once they were canned. This is a little extra work, but worth it in my opinion.

Once again, I used Mrs. Wages pickle mix for dill pickles and made the brine according to the instructions. I sterilized my wide mouth quart jars in the microwave. I packed the jars as full as I could and then filled them with the brine to 1/2″ of the rim and ran a rubber spatula around the outside of the jars to remove air bubbles. Where necessary, I added brine to leave 1/2″ head space. I wiped the rims and hand tightened rings and lids and put them in my hot water canner and processed them for 15 minutes.

These will need to sit undisturbed until tomorrow morning when I will put them away. So far I have made two batches of 4 quarts each. I think I need to make another couple batches to be sure that we have enough. We are down to our last jar from last year, so we’re refilling the larder just in time!