Sunday, June 5, 2011

Summer of pickles with my sister




My Montana sister and I have started an annual tradition. A week at the family farm in Montana canning up jars and jars of pickles. We make mostly dill pickles with garlic, but we add various amounts of salt (we've discovered we can use very little in the jars that will sit for six months before we eat them). We start by going to the Hutterite colony that is five miles or so from my parent's farm. There we can buy huge bags of cucumbers for canning (around ten pounds for two dollars). Then we go to my mother's farm kitchen and get to work. We can up close to thirty quarts in a day -- which is a good thing because our family loves pickles (as my little niece said last year, we need lots because she can eat a whole jar by herself).


How about you? Do you have any things you can each year?

3 comments:

  1. Not any more. I used to but never could get the pickles crunchy. Always too soft. Hubby was raised in the city, too and no matter what I made, he wouldn't eat it because it wasn't from the store. Well, except for my jams and jellies. He loved those and considered them quite safe because they took awards at the local fairs. *sigh*

    Why didn't I find this blog before?

    Anita Mae.

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  2. Anita Mae -- Thanks for stopping by. It's hard to know what is safe to eat anymore, isn't it? Homemade pickles are good though and one should scrub them very well before using.

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  3. Hi Janet
    No I don't can, no storage. However, when I buy the large chub of ground beef, I break it down, put some in snack size bags for things like nachos, make about 12-16 meatballs-cook them then freeze them, dividing them up and placing 3 or 4 in a snack size freezer bag. I do the same for hamburger patties, and the same for meatloaves. I make about 2 or 3 small ones, place them in those plastic square freezer containers, that way whenever I want something all I have to do is take it out of the freezer and cook it up. :)

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