We love some good pickles over here. Bread and butter, dill, sweet; you name it we like ’em. And there’s been a plethora of cucumbers at our house this summer as a result of Dr. Jay’s garden. Now, I like cucumbers pretty well and I’ve had them in my share of cucumber waters and salads. Dr. Jay has been eating a few a day and we’ve given some away, but we weren’t really putting a dent in the cucumber supply. A week or so ago we finally got it together to make some pickles. By getting it together, I mean a trip to Target to buy canning supplies, a trip to Kroger to buy more pickling supplies, and a 10 pm run to Kroger to get a large enough pot to complete the aforementioned canning. Yeah, this was our first time canning anything.
Can you see where this is going? Actually, the canning wasn’t too difficult once we had all the supplies. I purchased a 6-pack of the vintage Ball jars (that link goes to Amazon though I found mine at Target for 9 or 10 bucks, which I realize is still a lot for 6 glass jars), mostly because I really only wanted that quantity of jars in that size and I didn’t want to get stuck with a lot of extras. The blue glass is very pretty, though I will say that for pickles, clear glass is probably better. Blue pickles are odd, no?
I think it was the pickling part where we struggled. Maybe our cucumbers weren’t crisp enough to begin with. Maybe we shouldn’t have used a recipe that involves boiling? I noticed that the jar of Claussen pickles we have says “never heated” on the label. Whatever it was, our pickles are mushy. Not just un-crispy, but mushy. Recipe we used can be found here.
I think the only successful part of the venture was the labels. GD Pickles.
Get it?
Okay, I know that is a lame joke but I had fun playing around with label making using my Paper Source labels, blue because they match the blue jars and it was what I had on hand. After I attached the labels (which will be totally destroyed once these jars are emptied and washed) I added their canning date. We had planned to give these jars away to friends and family, but now I think we should find some enemies to give them to. Anyone who writes a negative comment on this blog is getting a jar of pickles! (There better not be more than five of you, since that’s how many jars we have left).
So, anyone out there have a recipe or method for making decent GD pickles so I can use these labels again?
architecturebabble 
We need to look at my wonderful “old” Searchlight cookbook — from a great grandmother…it’s where I found the great recipe for crab apple jelly. Maybe that will be the secret. Nothing worse than mushy pickles
What a disappointment !
Rachel, I think you need to talk to Grandma or Aunt Mary. I never had any luck but they used to do a great job. You have the supplies now so have some fun with it. I think if you make them right the first time it is just luck.
Greg, I know you said that you don’t know of anyone that Obamacare is hurting, and I personally had not heard any – – – until just now. Read on. This is a note from my sister, and I did encourage them to come on as I’ll be rested up by the 15th..
Haven’t forgotten that I promised to do the pics so will try to do that next time I’m at Walmart, and drop them in the mail to you.
We enjoyed your visit and hope the rest of your trip is enjoyable.
Love ya’ll Joan