Cucumber to pickle jar

Mona’s parents, Pauline (Polly) and Frank believed in « putting away » their garden’s harvest- a tradition dating back to « the good old days » when pickling and canning were a necessity.  After every fall harvest, pickling and canning became a almost a production line in the Johnson family’s kitchen. Honestly, if you dared show your face in their kitchen in the midst of all the activity, you would be wise indeed to roll up your sleeves or simply get out of the way.

Pickles were a specialty of Polly and Frank’s- especially bread and butter pickles, dills (of course) and mustard relish (great on hamburgers and hotdogs).

Pickling day started in the garden early in the morning  it went something like this:

Washing off the dirt 
1.  Cucumbers would be harvested from the garden and put into large pails of water for cleaning.
Stirring the cucumbers clean
2.   A wooden stake would be used to stir things up to remove the garden soil from the nooks and cranies of the cucumbers.
3.  Next, having done its’ work, the water would be poured back into the garden and the cucumbers taken into the kitchen.
4.  If dill pickles were being made, the just-cleaned cukes would be sliced lengthwise into long spears;

5.  … and if bread and butter pickles were being made, out came the good old vegetable slicer – a simple device used to cut the cucumbers into coins of equal width.
6.  … and if mustard relish was being made, a vegetable peeler would be used to remove the skins, and a relatively sharp spoon would be used to scoop out the seeds before the white spears were chopped by hand.
Polly – in full pickling mode – removing seeds with a sharp spoon!
   
         Seeds- next stop, compost bin  – Chopped cukes for mustard relish

Here are the recipes Mona’s parents would use every year.

Dill Pickles

Spice Ingredients (for a single pint jar):

• 1 teaspoon dill seed
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 small bay leaf
• 1/8 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
• a small bouquet of fresh garden dill

Mix together the spice ingredients and put into a pint jar. Fill the jar with your prepared cucumber spears leaving 1/2 inch space at the top of each jar.

Top with a sprig of dill.

Brine ingredients:

• 4 cups water
• 4 cups vinegar
• 5 tablespoons canning salt

Bring the brine to a boil and ensure that all of the canning salt has dissolved. Finally, fill the sterilized cucumber and spice-filled jars with the brine. Seal the jars.

Bread & Butter Pickles

Ingredients:

• 15 
cups sliced cucumbers
• 3 onions thinly sliced
• 1⁄4 
cup pickling salt
• 4 
cups cracked ice
• 2 1⁄2
cups white vinegar
• 2 1⁄2
cups white sugar
• 3⁄4 
teaspoon tumeric
• 1⁄2 
teaspoon celery seed
• 1 
tablespoon mustard seed

Directions

1. Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and ice in a large bowl and stir.
2. Put a heavy weight on the mixture and allow to stand 3 hours.
3. Then, rinse and drain the mixture thoroughly.
4. Next, combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed in a large pot, along with the drained cucumbers.
5. Place the pot on a stove element and set to medium low heat.

6.  Heat the mixture until it almost comes to a boil.

7.  Then remove pot from the heat.

8.  Finally, pour the pickled cucumbers into sterilized jars- a funnel made for this makes the work easier and reduces the chance of spillage.

 

 

Mustard Relish (recipe pending)