Note: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated–without any extra cost to you– when you make a purchase through these links. You can read our Disclaimer here).
The garden produce is trickling in! We’ve gotten quite a few green beans, about a 1/2 dozen zucchini, and finally enough cucumbers to can! If you’d like a more in depth explaination of how we can & some of our most used supplies check out this post!
With this batch of cucumbers, we decided to make one pint each of refrigerator dill & bread & butter pickles, dill relish, & of course some dill pickles.
I find pickles to be one of the easiest things to can. While you can make your own pickling salt we’ve always bought Mrs. Wages pre-made packets. Typically, the instructions for both the brine & full pickling process are printed on the back of the package. Then you mix the packet with water and vinegar & heat it on the stove. Fill your jars with cucumbers add the brine, put a lid on it, and process it in the water bath!
We used a mandoline slicer to speed up the slicing process. I’ve been banned from using that ever since I about sliced my thumb off years ago.
For the relish, we used the grater blade on our mandoline slicer and then filled the jars with the same pickling mix that we used for the dill pickles, & processed the jars.
This is a first for us. We’ve never made dill relish before. When we finished filling the jars we had a little left so we added a little brine, stuck a lid on it and popped it in the fridge. When we tried it the next day we all liked it. It had more of a coleslaw texture than relish but it was good & we’d do it again.
We had a couple of cucumbers that needed to be “surgically” removed from the trellis. They actually grew into the trellis & once they were cut free they had little bits of chicken wire still attached. So, Dad took some wirecutters & cut the wire off. After that they were good to go! Who would’ve thought that wirecutters were a canning essential?
When we placed the jars in the waterbath we heard a discinct crack. We couldn’t immediately tell which jar cracked so we left them all in to process. When the time was up, sure enough one of the jars was sitting at an odd angle. Upon pulling it out we saw that the entire bottom had cracked off. 😥
Yes, it’s sad to lose a jar. But sometimes that happens. So we carefully pulled it out, saved the ring, reusable lid, & rubber gasket & tossed it in the trash. After letting the hot water sit overnight we strained it through some cheesecloth & washed everything so that it’s clean for next time!
The refrigerator pickles were even easier!
Sadly, these got going so fast I didn’t get a chance to take pictures. However, I’ll admit I was quite leery of trying these. We’d done refrigerator pickles in the past and I was not a fan of them.
These though? They’re GOOD! Actually, they may just be my favorite pickles & I’m not a big pickle person. They’re so simple too!! Get a pint jar, fill with 1-1.5 pounds of sliced cucumbers. Open the packet of premmixed brine (We used this brand specifically for refrigerator pickles. This is different than the premade brine mix linked above. This is a premade liquid brine.), pop a lid on the jar and refrigerate for at least 8 hours! We tried both the dill and the bread & butter varities and loved them both.
All in all, we ended up getting 4 quarts of dill pickle slices, 1 quart of dill relish, & 1 pint each of dill & bread & butter refigerator pickles. Not too bad for the very first canning of 2022! We ended up using the refridgerator pickles & the left over dill relish the next night for dinner! And it was delicious!
Until next time,
Bailey Sue
