Dill Pickles

A pickle's life begins in the garden. The story is passed around our family of my cousin's friend who, upon tasting my Grammy's pickles, asked if they came from a pickle tree. We find it humorous because pickles, and the process of making them, are as familiar to us as an old friend. We all have memories of seeing my grandpa pick cucumbers in the garden for Grammy to pickle. And we all have memories of Grammy packing jars and boiling brine, with a sink full of the green veggie. And we all remember coming home to Maine to a dinner of corn chowder, homemade bread and dill pickles. And we never ate the stems because of Grandpa's solemn warning that cucumber vines would grow out of our ears.

Their garden is full of these cucumber vines. Two or three long rows of just cucumbers. The cucumbers are picked small, the best size being about the length of your pinky finger, and it takes many, many plants to get enough to fill Grammy's waiting jars. 

They pick cucumbers every few days, making a batch every time they have enough. Green jars line up on their cellar shelves, joining the dwindling supply of last year's crop. Some are boxed up and given to family, and many are popped open and placed on the table, awaiting dinner. These jars are visited by pickle-lovers, who throw furtive glances toward the cook and toss tell-tale pickle stems in the trash. Dinners are accompanied by the oft repeated "please, pass the pickles" and little stems line themselves in an arc upon every plate. 

 Dill Pickles

Makes about 6 quarts

Total Time: 1 to 2 hours (minus picking time!)

A large bucket of freshly picked cucumbers, between 2 and 5 inches in length*

2 - 3 white onions

6 or 7 florets of freshly picked dill, in the seed stage

13 1/4 cups water

6 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup pickling salt

about 1/2 cup sugar

You will also need a canner to process the pickles.

*We don't use "pickling cucumbers," which are short and fat. We use the regular, long cucumbers. Pickling cucumbers are harder to fit as many in a jar and they don't stay as crisp when pickled. 

First you must pick your cucumbers. 

Store-bought cucumbers will not work here. You need to pick your own so you can control the length. 

Have you ever seen a 2 inch cucumber in the store? 

Also pick some dill. 

Once again, you'd have to grow your own dill. 

Stores generally don't sell fresh dill and when they do, they don't sell it at the right stage of growth. 

The dill should not be flowering but should look like a bunch of little seedheads. 

Wash 6 or 7 quart-sized jars and lids.

And sanitize them with boiling water.

Wash the cucumbers, scrubbing them to get off the dirt.

And sort them according to size, small, medium and large.

Cut the onions up into quarters and place one quarter in each jar. 

Also place one large floret of dill in each jar.

Combine water, vinegar and pickling salt in a large stockpot and bring to a boil. 

Boil, uncovered, for 15 minutes. This is the brine.

Yes, it needs to be pickling salt. 

Meanwhile, pack the jars full of cucumbers. There's somewhat of an art to this, but essentially you pack the bottom with the largest pickles, tuck in some mediums one next and then fill the top with the small ones. 

You want to pack them as tightly as possible. 

Spoon 1 T. of sugar on top of each jar and fill each jar with hot brine.

Seal jars with lids and place in your canner. Fill with water and bring to a boil. When it reaches a rolling boil, turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before removing the jars from the canner with canning tongs.

Let the jars cool on the counter. As they cool, you should hear the lids "pop" as they seal. Before storing your jars in a cool, dry place check to make sure that each jar sealed. Press on the top of each jar. If it pops up and down, then the jar did not seal and will not keep in storage. 

Let pickles cure for 1 month before opening and serving. Pickles will keep best, unopened, for 1 year. 

Once opened, keep in the fridge for up to one month.

Recipe from my Grammy