These are about the last of the fresh cucumbers for us from the garden this year. Homegrown cucumbers have such a great texture and flavor. I miss them all winter long. We eat as many fresh as we can in summer. Then when the glut occurs, I make dill pickles.
I make my dill pickles as chunks instead of whole or spears. I find I can get more pickle matter into a jar by cutting the cucumbers into chunks in lieu of wholes. In addition, I can make the chunks relatively uniform in size. Whereas my whole cucumbers are all sizes, widths, and irregularities. When we want sliced pickles for sandwiches and burgers, the chunks slice up just as nicely as the wholes do.
So this is it for our family's dill pickles for the year -- 6 jars, five 20-oz and one 16-oz.. Let's hope no one goes on a pickle-feeding frenzy before next summer's cucumbers are ready.
I'll be making sweet relish with green tomatoes later next week. We go through a lot of sweet relish over the course of a year. I hope to make several jars when the tomato season comes to an end and leaves me with lots of small green tomatoes to use up.
Will you be making pickles or relish this year?
We don't eat enough pickles or relish that it's worth my time to make them. However, in my day, I have made lots of pickles of all kinds. Actually, I didn't grow cucumbers this year because they take up a lot of space, and it's one of those veggies that people have lots to give away.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you have, Live and Learn.
DeleteLucky you that you have friends with cucumber surplus to share. Cucumbers, like other warm season veggies, are harder to grow in my area. This year, I had 5 plants that made it. They climbed the surrounding chicken wire fence, so didn't take up as much ground space top grow. I'll have to remember this for future plantings, that I can count on them to climb upward, given the right support.
My mom made the best sweet pickle relish and she knew we liked it and often gave us a jar. We still have a few jars left but mom's is not with us anymore so when it's gone, it's gone. I never made relish myself and I tried pickles but they never came out crispy so I don't make those. Mom never had luck either with crispy pickles. Dad didn't grow cucumbers this year either.
ReplyDeleteAlice
Hi Alice,
DeleteHow wonderful that you still have a few jars of your mom's sweet relish. Do you have her recipe? Your parents blessed you in whatever ways they could.