How to make Pickles: From the Vine to the Brine. How to make the most of preserving your summer garden cucumbers you can enjoy all year round!

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This is the first year I am canning pickles from our homestead garden, last summer Trevor & I were so excited about salsa that we completely missed the boat for canning pickles. It was not until later in the year we noticed we planted the wrong kind of pickle and we only had one plant. Silly us! But that is the best part in my opinion about gardening. The ability to grow, expand and create your garden of your dreams each season. We only plant what we enjoy because otherwise you have so much crop on your hands giving it away to people. Lucky for us we have a thriving garden and let me me show you how I canned out pickles from the vine to the brine!

One thing I absolutely love about this recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients. You’ll need fresh dill and fresh garlic – this makes the taste of the pickles.

What are the ingredients in canning pickles?

Makes 7 quarts

8 1/2 cups water

2 1/4 cups white vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup pickling salt

Picking Cucumbers (30-40 medium or 10 lbs), washed and cut into slices or spears

Fresh dill

Fresh garlic

6 tablespoons dillseeds per taste in each jar

How do you Can Pickles?

Directions

• Step 1

  Before slicing cucumbers, thoroughly rinse cucumbers in the sink. Remove stems and cut off a slice from each end. Slice cucumbers into thick slices (the slices should be 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick). I also did a few cut into circles and canned them that way you can cut them however you want them to look in your jar. You can view my pictures for a variety of both

• Step 2

  In a large saucepan combine water, vinegar, sugar and pickling salt. Bring to a boil. This will take a few minutes and stir occasionally to help dissolve all ingredients.

• Step 3

  Stuff the pickles into the jar. Spears should stand up and and have seeds turned inward as much as you can. Put in each jar as many sprigs of dill and fresh garlic cloves you would like. Finish with adding in the brine you created in Step 2 leaving 1/4″ of headspace in each jar

• Step 4

  Start a large pot of simmering hot water. Wipe rims and place sterilized seals and rings (tightened just slightly) on the jars.

• Step 5

  Place the jars into the simmering water, making sure the water only comes to the neck of the jars. Process pickles for 15 minutes. You should begin the timer as soon as you place them in the simmering water. This will seal the jars but this prevents overcooking the pickles (I like my pickles to stay a big crunchy).

• Step 6:

  Remove jars and cover with a towel as they cool. Listen for the Popping sounds that lets you know they have sealed. The hardest part here is to wait at least 3 weeks to enjoy your pickles. The magic of pickling happens as the cucumbers sit in the brine and soak in all the yummy flavors, so don’t open them too early to enjoy!

   

Let me know if you try this recipe! I am going to try other ways to share canning pickles as I hope they turn out as amazing as this recipe did!

Happy Canning!

Christina

These are some of the items I used when making these delicious canned pickles with some tools that are very helpful! The canning magnet is my favorite

The links in this post are affiliate links, and buying products directly from these links truly helps me so much. Thank you for your support of this growing blog!

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More information on safe pickling procedures can be found here: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can6b_pickle.html.