One of the greatest things about visiting my family in the mountains is eating all that home grown and home made jellies and pickles. I have never pickled or jarred anything before, but I really love the idea of making something delicious from your own garden or from whatever fruit or vegetable is in season and be able to enjoy it all year.
My grandmother makes the best jam ever and whenever I finish that last spoonful, I crave it and wish I knew how to make it. Another item I always miss when I leave my families house is their jarred sweet pickles. Before Luis and I left to head back home, Gail left me two jars with the sweet pickle recipe inside for me to attempt my first jarring experience.
She assured me that this recipe was super easy and my father instructed me on the which of the cucumbers were the best to make pickles. Easy recipe, check! Small, no wax cucumbers, check! Courage to finally make my own pickles (as of this morning), Check! Plus, I always get excited to use my mandolin.
On my last cucumber, I sliced the knuckle of my middle finger on the mandolin. Geesh! I am always so careful, but luckily it was the last cucumber so I was able to add the salt to the mix and let it sit as the recipe said for 30 minutes so I could give my knuckle some love.
Once my knuckle was all wrapped up, I began to mix together the other ingredients in preparation for adding it to the salted cucumbers. The only item I changed from the original recipe was the sugar. Luis and I have been watching what we eat and working out so I substituted the refined white sugar for natural raw cane sugar. You still get the sweetness that is needed for the pickles minus the actual sugar grams, which makes me happy and my target area happy; my tummy!
Look at all that yumminess in those jars! Now it just needs to sit in my refrigerator for 24 hours and they should be ready to eat! Super easy and quick. It is already bringing back memories of my grandfather opening a jar of his sweet pickles, pulling out a fork full and shoving it into my mouth. “Here! Try these! Aren’t they tasty”? Shakes head in the yes motion as mouth is full. I hope mine come out as good as theirs.
1,460 Days of Georgia 