God has blessed us this year with a most bountiful garden!
We've been canning corn, squash, green beans and making salsa. We've dug the onions and have them hanging on the back porch, and have been digging taters here and there. We won't dig all of them until the cukes and squash are done as the vines have spread so, they are covering the spuds up!
This post is about pickles though and we've made dill spears, zesty bread and butter chunks, and bread and butter chips, but best of all we've made Lime Pickles.
These are the pickle of my childhood. They are my favorite pickle. Potato salad isn't potato salad without chunks of lime pickle in it, and a hamburger just doesn't taste the same without them, but the best of the best is lime pickles diced up in your bowl of chili, or wait is it lime pickles on a peanut butter sandwich? I don't know but I know lime pickles are fantastic!
I have heard these called "outhouse pickles" or even the ever so classy "sh!thouse pickles", but we always just call them lime pickles.
So you start with some of these.....about 7 lbs (although I did a double batch)
Seeing as how I work 40 hours a week, Mon-Fri, I only really pick cukes on Saturday morning, which means I've got cukes the size of zucchini!! With all the rain we've been getting though, they aren't bitter, so we still use 'em...
Then you need pickling lime......
Slice your cucumbers up, slightly on the thick side....
And then put them in a big ole lidded container. If you have a pickle crock, use that. I do not, so I use a food grade plastic bucket. We soak them in 2 cups of lime per 2 gallon of water.....
......With the lid on, for 24 hours.
I always put the bucket in the bathtub, so when I shake it around every few hours it doesn't make a mess......
The next morning, you drain the lime water off, and rinse your cukes really well. 3 times, until your water is clear.....
Then you put them back in your clean bucket and cover them with ice water and let them set for 3 hours.....
Then you drain the ice water off, and mix up your brine as follows...
2 qts vinegar, 6 1/2 cups sugar, 1 TBSP cloves, 1 TBSP salt, 1 TBSP celery seed, 1 TBSP pickling spice.
Bring that to a boil and then pour over the cukes in your bucket. I then weigh the cukes down with a plate before putting the lid on the bucket and leaving them again for 24 hours.
By this time it's now day 3, and time to process your pickles! However, in my world it is now Monday afternoon and I'm at work, soooo what's a Goodwife to do?
I just waited until Tuesday morning before work to process mine. That made them soak in the brine closer to 36 hours but that's ok. No harm done. I just got up at 3:30 am and did them before work.....
Now you bring the whole mess to a boil and simmer for 35 minutes.
Then you put your hot pickles in hot jars, and fill with hot brine. Wipe your rims and put rings and flats on as usual, and process quarts in boiling water bath canner for 15 min and you wind up with this...
I hope you are all well and good and enjoying God's rich bounty! As the world gets crazier and scarier and more unsettled we are comforted knowing that we are God's children, and rejoicing in His wondrous gifts, blessings, and love! I pray you are doing the same!
Till next time,
God Bless......
