Putting up Pickles

Though not necessarily a craft, it defiantly is an art to learn how to can your own homegrown foods. This weekend we put up several jars of homemade pickles. YUM!

 The ones on the left and here in the large picture are from a recipe found at 
Ball Canning & Recipe site http://www.freshpreserving.com called Kosher Dill Pickle Chunks. They used the Ball Kosher Dill Pickle Mix, smelled very yummy while heating up, hope they taste as well as it smelled.The brine is very light golden almost clear yellow.

 The ones shown here on the right are Garlicky Dill Pickles Spears. A general recipe that was a combination of several I had but were basically the same. The had a hand mixed spice mixture added to each jar of garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, dill seed and peppercorns.  With a  cider vinegar, salt & water brine. This brine was deep dark golden. I didn't have black peppercorns, so I used a mixture of red/black/green. Don't know if it will make a huge difference, but they sure look pretty in the jars.

Only had one small incident , one of my pint Garlicky Dill jars busted the bottom out when placed in the water bath.  It was hard loosing all the small pretty cucumbers, but safety first. I had checked all my jars when I washed them, but sometimes you just never know when one will crack.
I ended up with 4 quarts, and three pints all together. Enough for my pickle habit and to share. 

We picked a few more blackberries(last of the season), will make cobbler from these. Peppers finally coming on. The corn, if we can keep the coons from wreaking havoc on it may finish making in the next week or so. One was caught and transplanted to the other side of the mountain last night , but we know were there is one the are probably more. 
-TNfrmgrl