Pickles!

Hi Friends,
Today we are canning up our cucumbers, zucchini & squash for Pickles! Pickles are a wonderful addition to a meal, side condiment, or just for eating! Try making some pickles for yourself or your family today!

Boil the jars to sterilize them. I keep hot water in them until I am ready to use them. I just dump out the water and they are ready to go!

Pickle Relish from Zucchini & a Mix of Peppers

A Close Up photo! Aren't they pretty? And Delicious!

 Use the time chart above for your altitude. We live in Colorado and use the 3,001-6,000 , so we add 10 minutes to the final processing time. Total time for my pickles is 30 + 10 =40minutes of processing time for each individual batch.

 I make up the "brine" for the pickles in a steel pan. Bring to boil and ladle over cucumbers or veggies or relish in the hot jars.

 Keep your jar lids hot, not quite to boil, but hot.

 These jars are ready to be "cold packed". Cold Packed means that the vegetables will be placed in the jar with out any cooking or heating process done to them.

 Ladle the brine over the veggies and wipe the jar edge dry.

 I use a jar funnel in the photo above. It keeps the brine from spilling all over the jar and counter.

 Use a canning stick to release air bubbles. Trapped air can enable bacteria growth. Not a good thing. So get out those bubbles. Clean jar edges and place the hot lid and ring on the jars. Don't over tighten jar lids. Twist just until the lid just feels tight. That way the lid does not pop off during the canning process.

*Note: for crisper pickles always use "Pickle Crisp" available where canning supplies are sold. 


Here I had to use my rock to weigh a jar down in the boiling water bath. I have processed quarts in this batch and had just enough to give a pint jar too. I used the quart processing time for the whole batch of cucumber pickles.




The pickles all turned out wonderful!

I hope you decide to make your own pickles, relish, zucchini pickles, pickled onions, pickled beets or pickled mixed vegges! They are a great snack too! 
Enjoy!

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