Pickles

(NOTE: Please pardon the sad puns.)

Last Saturday Mom and I made pickles from cucumbers grown in our backyard. Our cucumbers are coming in almost faster than we can pick them!

Mom has made pickles before.  Her sweet pickles are out of this world! But I think this was her first time attempting dill pickles. Or at least the first time in a while. It was my first time ever participating in pickle-making. I was really excited!




Preparing everything takes a bit longer than the actual pickling process. Especially when you're not altogether sure what you're doing....










Our special tools >
I kind of felt like a doctor the way we had to sterilize everything...or thought we did....







<Ingredients

After slicing and stuffing as many cucumbers in a jar as possible we added the dill weed, pickling spice and peppercorns, then the vinegar/pickling salt concoction. After that we put the lids on and popped them into the water-bath. A little while later, we had pickles!

Our pickles looked delicious. This morning I braved the unknown and gave them the real test. I ate one. It tasted great! 

However, there is more to a pickle than looks and taste. Much more. Any pickle worth it's salt (no pun intended) must be crisp. Who wants a soft pickle? Soft pickles are like soft apples. Rotten.

Ours were mush.

Fail.

The story doesn't end here. We are not defeated. Mom and I will conquer the art of dill pickles. We will navigate the mazes of techniques and recipes until we reach the prize of the perfect blend of crunchy, cool, tartness.
Until then...we're in a pickle!