Timberline Homestead A self sufficient homesteading life
The cucumber harvest has been plentiful…and relentless. Perfect! They were planted with the intention of making some homemade pickles before the end of summer.
These beauties are a pickling variety purchased from John Scheepers.
I got the idea of this recipe from Balls Complete Book of Home Preserving. If you’re considering canning this book is fantastic. We bought it for a few pickle and jam recipes but now have a long list of recipes we will try. I will add that this is my first canning attempt.
The pickles were cleaned, ends cut, and sliced into long spears.
In a large pot 4 cups of cider vinegar, 4 cups of water, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup pickling salt, and spice bag (pickling spice wrapped in cheesecloth) are all brought to a rolling boil then heat is reduced for 15 minutes allowing the pickling spice to infuse the liquid.
The recipe calls for garlic cloves, bay leaves and dill to be packed into each jar. I adjusted the amounts and added a sprig of dill, a small piece of garlic and half a bay leaf for each 8oz jar which was prepared and boiled while I worked through the rest of the steps.
Cucumber spears were packed into jars ontop of dill, garlic and bay leaf. The boiling liquid was added, removing air bubbles and leaving 1/2″ of headspace.
Cans were processed in boiling bath according to recipe and adjusting for altitude for 25 minutes.
Garlicky goodness. Delicious.
