Pickles!

This weekend I embarked on a new journey... canning! I have been gardening the last couple of years, but haven't been able to give my garden the time and attention it requires because every time I've planted a garden I've gotten pregnant. Must be something in the air. This year however, I am not pregnant and so although I'm now a busy Momma of two, I still have found a little time here and there to grow a few plants (and lots of weeds!) including cucumbers.

My cucumber plants have done really well this year and so I decided to try my hand at making pickles. I bought a "Ball" starter kit that included 3 pint jars, a canning basket for lowing the jars into a hot water bath, and INSTRUCTION! This has proved to be a great buy! I also bought a dill pickle spice packet. So all I had to do was combine water, vinegar, and the spice packet and bring it to a boil. It doesn't get much easier than that.

Now, I am not intending this to be a tutorial on making pickles because this was truly a test run. Maybe as I become more confident in my ability I will create one, but for now this is just a story of my canning adventure.

I decided on slices and spears for my pickles. So I cut them all up and added them to my jars. Then, once the pickling liquid was ready I added it to my cucumbers.  I then "finger" tightened my lids, loaded up my basket and lowered into the hot water bath.

5 minutes later I pulled them out and set them aside to cool. Amazingly all of my jars sealed correctly and in just a short 24 hours we will have homemade pickles ready to enjoy!