Happy August to you. While fall feels like its right around the corner, we are still enjoying garden harvest and waiting for a spell of hot weather to ripen our tomatoes. Today, i’m talking pickles. disclaimer: this is not a sugar free recipe, but it is low sugar, with only 1/4 cup. while we don’t eat a lot of sugar, I was curious to explore the world of pickling, as a Ball® Canning Ambassador I’ve focused mainly on jams thus far, I was excited and nervous to give these Kosher Dill Pickles spears a go. And let me tell you they did not disappoint.

Let me also tell you, i’ve truly hated pickles for most of my life. As a kid and teenager, I thought they were strange, why not just eat a refreshing cucumber instead? I actually knew I was pregnant with magnolia when I bought my first jar of pickles ever and wanted them on my sandwiches. Who was I and what was happening to me?? The cliche of craving pickles during pregnancy was true for me.

When this California girl moved to the Midwest, it opened a whole new level of understanding and admiration for the acting of pickling blossomed. In stores I saw pickled beets, pickled green beans, things I didn't even know you pickled. I didn’t understand what a joy and necessity it was to preserve a harvest, when in california you can practically grow a garden all year round.

Pickling, as a gardener, because another way to use the harvest. Especially of a plant like a cucumber. Two gardening seasons ago, it was my first time planting a summer garden at our home. My mom visited from California in May. I was glad to have the extra hands for planting time and it was her first time planting a garden from seed. My mom is a container and succulent gardener on her little balcony back home, she thought there was no way these seeds would take, oh was she wrong.

At our previous home, our garden was in a pretty shady spot so the cucumber plants did not thrive. I wanted to grow cucumbers. So my mom and I followed the instructions on the packet, planting roughly 4 seeds in a little mound at the base of the trellis all along one side of the bed.

Then a couple weeks later, little cucumber seedlings happily sprouted. I remember the instruction packet had mentioned thinning but I wanted to ensure a cucumber harvest, there was no way all of those little plants would survive! So I left them. And almost all of them grew vigorously, huge cucumbers. And they kept coming. cucumbers all season long. so many we could keep up with them. Aj was driving around town dropping crate full off at our friends and neighbors front porches before they could protest.

I wish I would have known then what I know now. How to pickle + can! How to ensure that in dark, dreary winter months you can have a taste, a remembering of the summer abundance. The next year aj forbade any cucumber plants in the garden. He couldn’t even stand to pick one up from the market, but this year, I snuck four pickling cucumber plants into our new front yard garden, for a modest, yet rewarding harvest.

I planted them in Griffin and Magnolia’s garden bed, Griffin has been coming in to the house having plucked little cucumbers before they are actually ready.

Pickling and canning was a way our ancestors made sure they had enough food all year long. Even in the times when their were no gardens, no fresh food or abundance, you could go to your pantry or cellar shelf and open a jar to nourish your family. Adding spices gives the produce delish flavors and additional benefits for digestion.

Today, i’m filling up the water bath, something that feels like the beginning of a kitchen ritual, to share Ball® Canning’s recipe for Kosher Dill Pickles in Ball® Wide Mouth Pint Jars.

Kosher Dill Pickles

Makes about 4 Pint Jars

ingredients

• 2 ½ lbs. (1.1 kg) 3-4 inch pickling cucumbers

• 2- ½ cups water

• 2 cups white vinegar

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup Ball® Salt for Pickling and Preserving

• Ball® Pickle Crisp

• 4 cloves garlic

• 4 small bay leaves

• 12 dill sprigs

• 2 tsp yellow mustard seeds

• 4 small hot peppers (optional)
   

directions

Prepare boiling water canner. Wash and heat Ball® Wide Mouth Pint Jars in simmering water until ready to use, do not boil. Wash lids in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.

Wash cucumbers and hot peppers, if using, in cold water. Slice 1/16 of an inch off the blossom end of each cucumber; trim stem ends so cucumbers measure about 3 inches. Cut cucumbers into quarters lengthwise.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt in a small stainless saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat to simmer.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar and salt in a small stainless saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and lower heat to simmer.

Place 1 garlic clove, 3 dill sprigs, ½ tsp mustard seed, 1 bay leaf, 1 red pepper, and Ball® Pickle Crisp (if desired) into a hot jar. Pack cucumber spears into jar, leaving a ½ inch headspace, trimming any cucumbers that are too tall.

Ladle hot brine into a hot jar leaving a ½ inch headspace, using the other end of the headspace tool to remove any air bubbles, ensuring a good seal later on. Wipe jar rim clean. Center the lid on the jar and apply band, adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat this process until all jars are filled.

Process jars 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat, remove lid, let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when center is pressed

While these delicious and crispy pickles did not last long in our house, as Griffin and I have been enjoying an afternoon snack of pickles straight out of the jar. I’m hoping our plants keep producing for the remaining couple months of our growing season here in zone 5 so I can put up more pickles!!!

For now, we are savoring these and planning more cucumber plants for next year’s growing plans, which yes, I have already started. Have you made pickles yet this season? Are you even a fan of pickles??