Canning

Hello again my friends. I am so excited! I have jumped right in today and canned some dill pickle slices! Now this may not sound like a big to-do but I have been worrying and fretting over this since last gardening season! 

Last year when I planted my garden I had very high hopes of being able to can green beans, make pickles, and make salsa. That is where I wanted to begin. I also wanted to take advantage of some of the "u-pick" places around here and get some blackberries, apples, and strawberries. So I bought a case of pint sized Ball jars, a canning kit that had a jar lifter, a jar funnel, a lid lifter, and a head space/bubble remover tool. I also bought a few packets of dill pickle seasoning and salsa seasonings to start with. WELL, my garden didn't do well enough to preserve anything and I didn't have the money to go to any "u-pick" farms. 

I was also very scared to try to can my own foods. I know people have done it for YEARS but after reading the Ball canning book I had purchased and some other books I had checked out from the library, I had myself so worried, I wasn't sure I could do it. I didn't want to do something wrong and make my family sick OR spend all of that time, energy, and money and end up wasting it on spoiled food! (yup my hubby tells me I tend to over-think things)

This year is different though! My garden is flourishing! I have had to give away cucumbers, eat cucumbers, juice cucumbers so I decided to make some pickles! I got out my jars, my seasonings, my utensils. I washed all the items and sterilized all the items. I followed directions for making the liquid brine. I cut up 8 cucumbers. I filled up hot, sterile jars with yummy, ripe cucumber slices, poured hot brine over them, wiped the rims of the jars clean, popped the lids and bands on the jars, put them in a hot water bath, brought it up to a boil and then timed it for 15 minutes. When all was said and done.....I got this....

Five pint jars of shelf pickles and one jar of refrigerator pickles!!!!!

I am mighty proud of myself and NOW I can't wait to get a bunch of tomatoes to make salsa!

AND I am scouring the newspaper for Ads for "u-pick" farms!

I can't wait to preserve some more foods. I even want to do some quarts of some of the soup recipes in the Ball Canning Book. 

Here's to making your own pickles!!!!!

Hugs,

Erin