Saturday, August 16, 2014

Making Pickles

Pam planted a little garden this year.  She's gotten a small amount of peas and green beans, the lettuce did well but she waited too long to pick it and it went to seed, the tomatoes are just turning red, and cucumbers.  Man, do we have cucumbers!  She only planted four cucumber plants, but got enough cucumbers to can more than two dozen jars.   She's still at it.


She's canned sweet and sour dill pickles, garlic-horseradish dill pickles (using my homemade horseradish), and bread and butter pickles.  They are really, really good.  I wonder why homemade food is so much better than what you buy in the store?  And I wonder why they call it "canning" instead of "jarring"?

1 comment:

  1. Folks used to "can" in cans and the name stuck. Our copy of "Putting Food By" (falling apart from years of use) gives canning instructions as well as jars. Pam's little garden is productive! I plant small bits of lettuce every few weeks so there's always some good to harvest. We both lose any excess weight every summer because we eat tons of veggies and fruit from the garden and little meat or starch. Cooking soon after picking is tastiest... We have racks of jars or veggies, pickles, salsas, and fruit in our basement as well as their frozen counterparts.

    Putting food away is addictive and keeps you healthy, fit, and in touch with the earth. Plus you can barter with neighbors and/or local markets for store credit. Sounds like you two have the bug! My guess is that next year you will double your food put away. You simply must plant some garlic--it's so easy and rewarding. (In October). Store garlic comes mostly from China... And garlic scapes are a plus in June. Oh I forgot--it also saves a lot of money. With garlic and a hot pepper plus cilantro with your tomatoes, salsas are begging to sit next to your pickles.

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