homemade pickles

My daughter loves pickles.

I can remember the first time she tried them as clear as if it was yesterday. We were eating take out on the deck—sandwiches and french fries. My daughter asked for a french fry. I asked her if she wanted to try a pickle instead. I thought she would be surprised by the tart vinegary contrast to what she was expecting. Instead, she surprised me by devouring it and my husband’s, as well.

She’s been a pickle girl ever since. Whenever we are out, it’s kind of an unsaid thing that everyone immediately puts their pickle on her plate. Sometimes she’ll ask the server if she can have a side of pickles as an appetizer. Surprisingly, this hasn’t caught anyone off guard.

pickles

A few weeks ago our CSA offered us a choice of two large or five pickling cucumbers. My daughter was stunned. “We can make pickles?!” I remembered a refrigerator pickle recipe in one of the CSA newsletters so I said, “Sure!”

Making pickles is super easy. One of our cucumbers didn’t make it out of the crisper alive, but I managed to fit the other four into a single jar. I chose this recipe from Kate Payne’s website. The hardest part has been the waiting. Just a few more days and we’ll be able to crack open the jar. I’ll let you know what our pickle girl thinks.

After spending a little time on Payne’s website, I checked her book out of the library and I’m really enjoying it. I’ll post a review when I’m finished.

putting some apples by for winter

big canning apples

This weekend I canned apples. Before I moved to Nebraska, canning anything would have never crossed my mind. Going to an orchard to pick my own apples never crossed my mind, either. Unfortunately, vacation and being sick kept us from prime picking season, but when we went to this pumpkin patch, they had local, harvested apples we could buy. Cool!

I was really nervous about doing this. The word “botulism” comes up quite frequently in the canning books. Yikes! It was really easy, though. To prepare, I bought a stock pot, jar lifter and wide mouth funnel. (The funnel comes in handy on a daily basis around here, since we store lots of things in mason jars.) I got the pint jars from the grocery store and used the Ball Blue Book as my guide. One peck of apples filled six pints almost perfectly.

What I’d really like to do is can soups. I dream of opening up the pantry on a cold, snowy day and pulling out a hearty, homemade soup instead of a can of Campbell’s. Most of the things I’d really like to can need a pressure canner. I’m definitely not ready to make that commitment. I figure I’ll try jam and pickles next and see how things go. Maybe in the Spring I’ll be ready to join a CSA and take the next step.

What about you? Do you grow and can your own produce? Buy from local farms? Love the idea or think it’s crazy? I’m curious!