making pickles

19 years ago

I posted this on the harvest forum, but thought someone here might have an answer.

I have a question: just made pickles and have noticed that when I lift jars up after the water bath...I try to keep them verticle...there is always a pool of water on top of the lid....Do I towel this off or let it get sucked into the jar?....I'm talking about that first 15-30 seconds when you go from water bath to a towel to cool.

Also a warning: if your jars are in the water bath, simmering, and you remove and fill one at a time...at some point you will get the pot too full...usually as you'e almost done...well, those last few jars, where you have to pour off the water they hold into the sink...watch out..if you replace the jar vertically..because the pot is full of jars...the water rushing in will leap up and scald your hand. You guys have probably figured this out...but want to warn the newbies, or challenged. I've been canning for decades, but do still screw up. By the way, I was making bread and butter pickles. Planted a modest 2 hills of cucumbers...one picklers and one table. Planted extra seed as it was old..you got it, they all came up...figured I'd add 2 more hills...they usually don't transplant well...wrong. They all lived and I picked 10 bs. today...actually a good thing as I'm on my last jar of pickles...If this keeps up I may have to make dills too. A nice surprise as cukes have a hard time in my climate. Hope you all have had a good harvest.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

tclynx
19 years ago
peggy,
I've actually had pretty good luck with cucumbers here in FL but they tend to suffer from pests (caterpillars, worms, squash bugs, squash borers) after the first big flush of harvest. I've found that I really like the burpless tendergreen variety for table as they are so tender and the skin isn't bitter. I've tried the early spring burpless tendergreen but it tries to be a really long thing and is often misshapen and off color. The sumter I was growing for pickles seems to be doing well too other than the caterpillars and worms.

The other half makes refrigerator pickles. He hasn't wanted to do any real canning though this is tricky with only one refrigerator and so many jars of pickles.

Last year (while I was still living at the apartment) I actually has some cucumbers growing through December. This year I think I'm going to put a container in front of my south facing garage on the concrete and see how well a cucumber lasts through winter for me this year. It will be a good spot that already has drip irrigation and hooks for strings to train the vines. It is definitely a spot for creating some season extension.

Congrats on your harvest and I might have to pick your brain about canning someday.
peggy_g
Original Author
19 years ago
tclnyx, Pick away, but the harvest forum on the GardenWeb is a wonderful source of information. Those folks are very knowledgeable. I planted SMR-18, picklers, and Sweet Success for fresh eating. The 10lbs. were the Sweet Success...figures....but I'm a happy camper. I've made pickles with non pickle varieties in the past and they did fine.
Related Professionals
Winston-Salem Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Morgantown Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Newburyport Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Binghamton Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Allentown Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Los Angeles Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Lafayette Landscape Contractors · Aurora Landscape Contractors · Lubbock Landscape Contractors · Little Rock Architects & Building Designers · Bainbridge Architects & Building Designers · Monroe Architects & Building Designers · Worthington Architects & Building Designers · Edison Architects & Building Designers · Glenwood Springs Architects & Building Designers
byron
19 years ago
Peggy

Got a recipe for "Grannies Killer Dillers"

It a pickle with a dash of chile pepper

You can make it mild, medium or hot depending on the chile used.

Interested drop a note

Byron