The Pickle Packin’ Trial

Linda has been chompin’ at the bit to make pickles with her cousin Sandy for months. On the way up north after hearin’ that Sandy wasn’t able to find the seeds she likes for makin’ those pickles we were on a seed huntin’ expedition along with the clock huntin’ & sandal huntin’. We were able to find some seeds that we sent to Sandy to plant in her garden. Ya’ll know how the clock huntin’ came out and we never found the sandals so I figure two outa’ three wasn’t bad.

Anyway the time had come for Linda’s first ‘pickling’ lesson and we left for Sandy’s house in Tionesta, PA. We’ve only been by her place once when we were out with Diane & Denny last year. I say ‘by’ her place cause we drove by, on some country road and Diane said “That’s were Sandy & Craig live”. So we had a little idea where we were goin’ but our GPS had only a rough idea, so we winged it. We drove by and Linda said I think that’s it but I had to keep goin’. After reachin’ the end of the road we backtracked to that place and sure enough that’s it.

Sandy came out and met us then took us on a tour of the property & garden, followed by a tour of her house, nice place. Then the girls went out to the garden to pick any cucumbers that Craig had missed the night before.

Then they got to makin’ the brine, warmin’ lids and preparin’ the cukes fer picklin’.

      Here’s Linda washin’ the cukes gettin’ em ready.

Then it was cuttin’ some ‘o’ that dill for each jar, garlic clove, stuff them cukes in there, toss in a grape leaf or two, fill up the jar with little cukes and throw in a piece of hot pepper before they were ready for the brine.

Here’s a jar ready for brine

When I say ‘stuff’ I mean stuff as many cukes in that jar as ya’ can, then fill any voids with smaller ones. They did up a dozen quart jars. The cukes that were to big to fit in the jar were reduced to chips or spears then packed, brined & sealed.

The finished product for today’s efforts.

Monday they are gonna’ do some more. Of coarse during all this workin’ we had to sample some of Sandy’s other pickles, beets & jams, Umm…mm Good. After we went fer’ a ride so Sandy could show us some more of their property. When we returned Craig was home from work so we visited a while then left fer’ Cousin Bonnie’s.

That’s all fer this episode, we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.