Packing a Peck of Pickles

It's pickle time!

For the past few years, my husband has been all about making "Sun Pickles." What on earth is a sun pickle, you say?

Simply put, it's making pickles from cucumbers, using sunlight as the heat source. Google it and you'll find plenty of recipes.

Since we are both retired now, we decided to go crazy on Sun Pickles! Hubby bought a half bushel of small cukes at a Russel Farms, just down the street, fresh dill from Horrock's in Battle Creek and brand new half gallon canning jars from Meijer. 

Oh and we had a few wonderful dill heads from volunteer dill in our garden!

 We started by soaking the cukes in ice water for about an hour to make them as crisp as possible. While they soaked we both worked to chop garlic bulbs, carrots and jalapenos into appropriate sizes to include in each jar. 

Next, ends were cut from the cukes and hubby used a fork to score the sides - all the better to allow the brine to make itself known.

And speaking of brine. The first year we made them, we found the PERFECT recipe. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED those pickles. Alas, we did not bookmark the recipe and thinking we had found the same one the next year we proceeded to pickle.  But... no...too salty, too tart.

So, wouldn't it have been smart to bookmark the recipe we did NOT like to make sure we never used it again. Yeah, it didn't happen. 

Again this year we searched, we discussed, we prayed, we chose a brine recipe. We decided to go with a (seemingly) pretty traditional (it was called grandma's recipe) 6-2/3 cups water to 3-1/3 cups apple cider vinegar, plus 2/3 cup pickling salt.


We sterilized jars and lids in Easy Clean No Rinse Cleaner, purchased from Bell's Brewery, instead of boiling to save time. Hey, it works for beer glasses and growlers, so why not pickle jars? 

Now it is assembly time.  Garlic bulbs, jalapeno slices, black pepper and dill in the bottom of each jar, a layer of pickles, more dill, another layer of pickles and finally the brine. 

Lids popped on top, rings finger tightened, and jars placed on garden wall. Now it's time for the sun to do it's magic.  

As they sit, the lids seal... unseal... seal... and in some cases stay sealed. Some seal for good in the refrigerator and some never stay sealed. Rule of thumb - no seal = refrigerator pickles, eat 'em up. Sealed = up to a couple years shelf time. (Note: remove the rings so if the seal releases the ring does not cause it to reseal and potentially become lethal. Yipes!)

We are happy to say the pickles are YUMMY! We really like them... maybe not LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, but with a few alterations, they will be better next year. And yes, we made notes!

Stay pickled!

Miriam