My cucumbers are still coming in and I didn't have the patience to wait for some dill pickles, so I cheated and bought pickling cucumbers at the Farmer's Market in Rocky Ford, Colorado. If you have never been to Rocky Ford believe me you have to go! This time of year is heaven with an abundance of fresh produce and at reasonable prices! I spent around $50 and got four cantaloupe, a watermelon, five peaches, two spaghetti squash, the huge box of roma tomatoes below and a large bag of cucumbers.
For my birthday this year, my mom bought me a canning kit which included jars, flavor packets, basket to drop the jars in water, magnet stick for removing lids from boiling water, funnel, measuring stick and jar tongs. First and foremost you need to wash your jars. Wash your jars either by hand in very hot water or put them in the dishwasher. It is also a good idea to boil them empty for awhile to ensure any and all bacteria is dead!
But your own Ball®Canning Utensil Set HERE!
Camera test...yep we're good to go!
My canning assistant. He's worthless.
Now that you have your canning essentials, let's get to the good part! The ingredients!!!!
1.) Fresh Dill
2.) Crushed and Peeled Garlic Cloves
3.) This is the mix that came with the canning kit and it was very tasty!
4.) Peppercorns
5.) Dill Seed
6.) Pickling Cucumbers
7.) White Vinegar
8.) Water
Place a large, deep kettle on the stove top that will be deep enough for your jars to set in boiling water.
Next, following the instructions on the back of the pickle mix make your picking broth using a medium sized sauce pan.
Next cut your cucumbers into the desired pickle type. We did spears. Cut off the end of each cucumber, slice it in 1/2 then in 1/4's.
Now it's time to pack your jar with the punch!
Before you put the cucumbers in the lay some dill sprigs, a couple teaspoons of dill seed and 6-8 peppercorns in the bottom of your jar. As you can see in the photo below I made a few of my jars SPICY! If you'd like to make Spicy Dill Pickles simply slice a jalapeno in 1/4's, remove the seeds and wedge in with the pickles. The results were delicious! Buffalo Bleu doesn't even like spicy food, but preferred the Spicy Dill Pickles over regular. Maybe I'm getting him converted!!
In a small sauce pan bring water to a slight boil. Toss in your jar lids so the seal can soften and seal properly.
Cram your cucumbers tightly into the jar. Try to squeeze in as many as possible, but don't force them in and crush or scrape the soft side of the cucumber.
Finish with another sprig of dill on top. Look at those yummy little jalapenos in there!!
Now it's time to add the pickling broth. Place your funnel on top of the jar and begin ladling in the broth.
My kit also came with a measuring stick. You want to leave at least a 1/4 inch of headspace between the broth and the jar rim. The main thing is ensuring your pickles are covered. If the broth does not cover your pickles you will need to wiggle a knife in and trim them down. Once you have the perfect amount of broth use a dry towel or paper towel to ripe the rim of the jar. Don't use a linty towel that could leave remnants in your pickles or along the rim.
Using your handy dandy magnet stick remove a jar lid from the boiling water.
Please the lid on top of your jar and tightly screw on the screw band.
After you have enough jars packaged and ready to go, place them in your canning basket and slowly lower them into the boiling water. Be careful of the hot steam!
Let the pickles boil for about 15 minutes.
Tick tock, tick tock.
Remove the jars using the tongs or the you can remove the entire basket as long as your hand won't get burnt via the water or steam!
Place the jars on a towel or somewhere to seal. After a few hours the jar lids should concave meaning they are sealed. If a lid doesn't concave, no biggie! That just means you have refrigerator pickles and will need to eat them sooner....this is not a bad thing!
Talk about yummy!! 6 jars canned, 106 to go!
