48 Pounds of PICKLING CUCUMBERS...Oh My!

I hope there are a lot of you out there who bought the PICKLING CUCUMBERS. If you have never made homemade pickles, you really should try it! I will never go back to store bought jars of pickles again. Homemade pickles just taste so different and fresh to me. And I love that you can season them with all kinds of fun spices. You can really cater them to your liking.  PLUS...pickles at the store are so darned expensive. And because my kids and husband eat pickles like candy, I can't afford that.

So, if anyone out there bought all those cucumbers and is not sure what to do with them, here is the most simple recipe for pickles.

PICKLES

7-8 QUART jars

Pickling Cucumbers

14 cups of water

8 cups White Vinegar

1 cup Pickling Salt

Dill (it can be found in the produce section of the market and looks like a big weed. Give it a whiff and you'll know it's dill.)

Garlic

Other spice ideas: mustard seed, red pepper flakes, Alpine Touch Seasoning (a delicious garlic salt that we LOVE!)

1. Bring water and vinegar to a boil. Add salt and stir well.. Keep liquid hot while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
2. Put 1-2 sprigs of dill in each jar.
3. *Add 1 TBSP. of the spice of your choice. (or leave them plain dill if that's what you prefer.)
4. Pack cucumbers tightly in jars. 
5. Pour hot liquid over cucmbers.
6. Seal in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

*You can really do your spices anyway you like.  I always put both dill and garlic in mine. (Alpine Spice is my favorite. You can also use fresh garlic if you want.) Then I jazz some of them up with some mustard seeds or red pepper flakes. Both the mustard seed and pepper flakes make them a bit spicy so I leave some without those for my kids. If you come up with any other fun spices let us know!

I hope you enjoy your pickles all year long! I also hope they have them as an extra in the basket this next week. We had an early frost this year and all our cucumber plants froze. So the pickle shelf in our fruit cellar will be so sad and empty this year if I don't get some ordered. Bummer.