It’s been four weeks to the day since Jaquelyn and I had our adventure in  canning – which means it’s TIEM TO TASTE TEH PICKLES!

True Story: Man Cub was slated to go visit his grands today, for some Yard Work and Character Building Exercises, and I totally forgot about it until they were in the driveway and I was up to my elbows in baking bread for the week. How do you spell “oops”? I spell it just like that. Only with flour on my brow. So Man Cub was scrambling to get dressed in a hurry and brush his teeth, when I realized it had been four weeks since the pickles were pickled, and hello, we’re having an pickle tasting party with Will’s parents \o/

I’ll admit some apprehension about opening the pickles with them – Will’s mom recently gave me her mother’s pickle recipes*, and Will’s grandmom apparently set the standard for pickles. Which is to say, my pickles weren’t gonna make that leap,  no matter what. Also, I made apple pickles, which none of us had heard of before last month, so heaven only knows what was coming out of that jar.

But we opened them up and shared them around, and ya know what? Pretty good pickles, y’all! Even Will’s folks liked them** – woot!

Below the cut is what we made, and links to the recipes.

Spicy sweet pickles – but I only used half the dried peppers called for. I think that had I used the whole amount, these pickles would have been inedible, to be honest. As they came out, they’re a pretty great blend of sweet and hot. next time I may make them with a little less onion, as the onion seems to make up a good third of each jar. Will and I agree, tho’, that we shoudl make burgers for dinner sometime soon, just so we can put these onions on them.

Dill pickles – I’m a sucker for a picture of a jar hung with a blue ribbon from the county fair, y’all. I haven’t opened these up just yet, because I only have one jar and I’m waiting for a special occasion, but they look delish.

Apple Pickles – hello, outrageously delicious surprise for the day. These don’t really look like the picture, but that’s ok – they taste OSM. Remember those spiced apple rings that used to show up on salad bars in the 70s? They taste kinda like those, only a little milder, and a little sweeter, and no weird red dye. Totally yummy. I’ve been pickling at them since this morning.

I still have a ton of jars left over. When I knew we’d be canning, I didn’t really have a clear idea of how much goes in one jar and how much stuff we had to put in jars in the first place. We wound up with far fewer filled jars than I had expected. But soon it will be apple season, and I fully intend to make up some apple sauce and jar that business. So, um, more as it happens =)

 

*I’m not sure I have enough words to describe how excited I am about this – the recipe is old – as in, measures are by things like pecks and bushels – and tested, and been in the family for ages, passed down from hand to hand. Will’s mom giving me the recipes (pickles, and tomato pickle relish) is a Big Deal, and I am SO not forgetting that!
**In fact, Will’s dad had quite a few of the spicy pickles. I sent a jar home with them =)