All Who Wander Are Not Lost: Pickle Making Party

I remember my mom making bread and butter pickles every summer when I was little. I think I was always too busy eating the still warm pickles, though, to actually learn how to make them. To remedy this, we had a "pickle making party" one Saturday afternoon on a recent trip to Arkansas to see my family. I was definitely excited to learn some canning skills (something I think everyone should know how to do) and spend some quality time with my family.

The pickling making crew included Mom-mom (my grandmother), my mom, Pat (my aunt), Dori (my sister), and me. Mom-mom provided the kitchen, Mom brought extra cutting boards and vegetables to pickle, Pat brought fresh dill from her garden, Dori brought bags and bags of fresh cucumbers from her garden, and I showed up as a surprise!

We spent about the first hour chopping cucumbers and other vegetables to pickle and sterilizing the first set of pint and quart jars. Then it was on to measuring, mixing, boiling, and filling jars. The whole process was actually much easier than I imagined - basically just a lot of cucumbers, vinegar (and a few other ingredients), boiling water, and jars.

The bread and butter pickle recipe came from my great-grandmother and has been passed down through my mom's family for years. I forgot to actually write the family recipe down, though, so I'll have to be sure to get that later! Hopefully one day I'll be using it to make pickles with my kids!

We also used a ladle that had belonged to Mom-mom's grandmother - my great, great grandmother - which was probably about 100 years old! Talk about passing on tradition!

When we started the afternoon, I don't think anyone realized just how many cucumbers my sister had grown. It definitely got tiring and more than a little hot with all of that boiling water, but after about 5 hours (yes 5 hours!) of pickling we finally finished our last jar for a total of ten gallons of pickles!

Since I was flying out the Monday after our party and carrying on my luggage, I unfortunately wasn't able to actually bring any pickles home with me. Mom is planning to mail me a few pint jars, though, so I can enjoy the fruits of our labor later. I'll let you know how they taste in a few weeks :) In the meantime, I'd love to hear about your pickling and/or canning experiences!

My sister and I boiling cucumbers - I think the ideas was for us to learn by repetition - I 'm pretty sure we both stood by that stove for almost five hours (note my gross sweaty armpit and our natural "glow")!