So not the most challenging or even exciting post (ok, just kidding, some people get really excited about pickles), but to continue our series of what we’ve been up to in the garden. I wanted to share with you more of our pickling adventures and some borderline pornographic cucumber pictures.

Seemingly, this has been the year for cucumbers. Our first year growing them and it has been overwhelming! Thank goodness since we had a bit of trial and error with our recipe, but we finally got it. Our perfect pickle.

We decided to spear our pickles, making packing them tightly extra easy. Laying the jar down sideways and stacking them (on top of a fresh sprig of dill for pizzaz) made for easy assembly.

 

 

 

 

To make the brine we put all our spices in a pouch made of cheesecloth and tied with some kitchen string. We let our garlic float free as we put at least a clove or two in each jar before sealing.

 

 

Some of our pickles got so large this year I had to do a little trim work so they would fit in the jars! Filled up each jar with brine leaving about 1/2″ from the top, wiped the jar mouths clean and screw the lids on hand tight.

After 10ish minutes in our boiling water bath, we were done! The Perfect (Cheese & Weim) Dill pickle*.

*I put an asterisk because from what I have found recently going through this endeavor is that people are VERY serious about their pickles. I would never claim it to be the best as there are so many variations but this seems to be the best for our tastes here (extra garlic). Enjoy! 🙂

C&W Perfect Dill Pickle

• CUCUMBERS (6ish we double this recipe up so it’s a bit of an experiment depending on how tightly you pack your jars and how large your cucumbers are)
• 4 cups Water
• 4 cups Vinegar
• 1/2 cup White Sugar
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
• 4-6 cloves of garlic
• Tsp Dill Pollen
• Fresh Dill

For the spice pouch:

• 2 Allspice berries
• 2 Whole Cloves
• 1 tsp Mustard Seed
• 1 tsp whole Black Peppercorn

Bring a large stockpot of water to a rolling boiling. Cut your cucumbers in spears or chips. Pack them into your jars with 1 spring of fresh dill. In another smaller pot make your brine by combining the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, pollen, garlic and spice pouch. Bring to a boil and turn it down to simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Fill your jars with the brine leaving about 1/2″ at the top. Add the garlic cloves from the brine if you wish. Wipe the top of your jars down and put the tops on, tightening hand tight (don’t over tighten). Place jars in the stockpot of water (make sure the water covers the jars) and boil with the top on for 10-15 minutes.