We Have Pickles!!

Remember those cucumbers I left soaking in pickling lime? Well I spent ALL day yesterday making them into Christmas pickles. First they had to be scrubbed clean to get all the lime off (which I did twice to be safe) then they had to soak in ice water for three hours.

After that, it was into the pot with vinegar and food coloring for two hours.

They looked pretty light at the beginning but by the end they were brightly colored.

After that they had to be rinsed off again, and then back into the pot with vinegar and sugar and cinnamon.

They had to simmer while I sterilized the jars, bit since my pot is small I did one batch at a time. Eventually they went into the jars, then had to be processed.

And finally -tada! – we have Christmas pickles!

Would I ever purposefully do this again? Maybe. If my brother is really in love with them. But, next time I’d look up the alternatives to using lime because that would save a lot of work if they didn’t have to be scrubbed clean twice.

What else…oh. we have a test skeleton up in the yard.

We’re testing making them stand using a 6 foot piece of rebar. I saw something similar online and it’s a LOT cheaper than buying or building stands – and if it works well it’s also less intrusive in the scene. Anyway, so I bought ten sticks a couple months ago but we’re just now seeing if they will actually work long term, so fingers crossed.

And now I’m going to watch Hometown Cha Cha Cha.

Have a successful pickling kinda day!

Jo 🙂

P.S. you know I sampled them already and they taste a bit like pickled watermelon rinds but without the cloves. The taste is pretty close to the ones we had as kids and the texture is right, so they were cucumbers. I wonder if they had another spice in with it and if adding one would mess up the acidity? I need a canning expert, lol!