PICKLES

My in-laws have been spending a lot of their free time fixing up and remodeling my husband's grandmother's home, as she just lost her husband almost a year ago. Many of you have gone to your parents or even grandparents' homes and done this same thing. And you know that it involves a lot of work. But you also know that there's a lot of reward in going through, sorting and organizing, their things. The rewards are found as you discover family treasures, such as letters, recipes, artifacts, china...

One of the treasures they found was this canner:


My mom canned a lot when I was a child (green beans, beets, tomatoes, okra). Her mother canned a lot when she was a child. Her grandmother canned a lot. I never imagined that I would have an interest in canning, but when I was asked by my in-laws if I wanted Grandma's canner, I didn't hesitate to answer, yes. So, our first attempt at using our canner began...




My help:

Heating/sterilizing the canning jars as we prepare the veggies.



The cool thing about receiving treasures like this canner is the other treasures found in the box.

Look at this jar lifter and cookbook/instruction manual:



And as I opened this old book, Grandma's handwriting could be found in different recipes.


On the first page, she wrote the dates that she changed the lining ring:



Here she underlined important steps in the recipe and made a note to herself saying, "air vent usually rises during this time."





Have you ever grown cucumbers? I never have, but I'm sure my parents and grandparents have. If you grow cucumbers, you better LOVE them, because you'll probably get a lot. After picking several cucumbers and not being able to keep up with eating them, we started picking them early, when they were too small to eat fresh. Once we had enough collected, we decided to turn them in to pickles.

The produce:



Some of the bigger cucumbers we cut in to spears:




Jamming them in to the mason jar:




Using Grandma's jar lifter made it extra special:



The final product:



For best flavor, it is suggested to wait 4-6 weeks before eating them. The longer they sit in the brine, the tastier and crispier they'll become. I can hardly wait that long!! But I will.