Pickles!

I’ve done quite a bit of canning over the years, but one thing I have never gotten around to making is PICKLES! I keep saying I’m going to, but I never seemed to have enough cucumbers at one time (my kids LOVE them, so even if I get a few each day from the garden, they’re usually gone before we pick more the next day!)

But this year, our cucumber patch is producing more! I did put in a couple of extra plants this year, in the hopes that we’d have a better harvest… apparently, it worked!  And, finally, I made those pickles I keep talking about!

Pickles!

Since this was my first attempt at pickles, I decided to try a small batch, to start. I used this recipe, and made 1/2 batch (2 jars).  I must say, this was one of the fastest, easiest canning projects, ever. Start to finish, less than an hour! They need to sit for a couple of weeks before we open them, though… so we won’t know until then how they taste.

While I was mixing up pots of brine anyway, I decided to whip up some Pickled Green Beans, too! I used the recipe from www.pickyourown.org, which, by the way, is a good resource for those who are new to the business of canning.

Pickled Beans!

Now the weekend is upon us, and both our garden and our farm share seem to be providing us with lots of goodies! So I will be spending a good bit of time in the kitchen over the next couple of days, preserving some of our bounty for the cold winter months. I have some old tried-and-true recipes that I'll be using, but I’m always on the lookout for more. Do YOU have any good pickling, canning or freezing recipes?