What recipe did you use? Let us know how they turn out.

Give 'em a month to cure a bit. Sooner, and they are not much in flavor yet. Where's all the dill?? I want the dill, the real thing!! No dried blah seeds. You can use both the weed and seed. In my jars, almost a whole pickle 'space' is for the garlic and dill.. Love it!

I used the dill pickle mix that I got at wally world. I've never tried them before, but will find out how they taste soon. They were supposed to be ready in 24 hours, but i'll leave them longer than that.

EG

OK, as mentioned many vinegar based pickles need a bit of curing before opening. A chill before opening is great to give crispness. Was the dill mix a Ball or Mrs. Wages?? These two are the best. I had found a dill mix that had sugar in it, but didn't like a sweet dill. As a taste variance, a couple of whole black peppercorns can also add a bit of zing. When I use the mixes (almost all kinds of things), I like adding more of same spices used in the mix. I prefer really bold flavors, so adding extra is always a good way to spike it up some.

ksrogers - I think the dill mix I bought was Ball, and I also bought some bread and butter mix by Mrs. Wages - (i'm making those in a couple of weeks). These jars in the picture was a 1 man operation, and the smell from the boiling mixture was very strong. I'm still coughing...Oh god....I think I need a breathing treatment! LOL

EG

Oh yeah!! A vent, the acid the fumes, strong!! All quite safe though, and does open the air passages!!! Imagine if it were full strength 5% vinegar! In any case a hooded vent can help. I sometimes 'slurp' a little brine while its hot to see if its got the kick and right taste. Once in a while a blast of fumes will get to my lungs, WOW!! The B&B pickles are one of my favorites and as mentioned elsewhere, they use a little bit of milder cider vinegar as well as white. I avoid using any cheap vinegars,and have always found Heinz the best of all. Costco and BJ's have 1/5 gallon ju]gs at a decent price, and sell out FAST! There, I use a few thin sliced onions in each jar, and cut the cukes with a 'crinkle cutter into almost 1/4 inch slices. Also add a few bits of dried sweet red peppers for color, as they swell up and look nice. The spices used are usually mostly whole fresh celery seed and mustard seeds, with a bit of dill seed too. Usually they list soices these on the box and in recipes, or you also see them in the brine. I add a bit extra of each spice to each empty jar prior to packing tightly. Cukes always get 'shrunken' a bit once they sit in a brine, so they may show a lot of loose space after a week or so, but not to worry.

engineeredgarden: Those cukes look wonderful. :) I still haven't made my garlic Dills. I'm waiting for just a few more cukes. The high 90s here aren't helping the gardens much. The cuke plant slowed down a bit. Whiteflies are also an awful problem this summer. This is the biggest cuke plant I have ever seen. It's a volunteer no less!

My cuke plants have finally yielded me about 10 pounds today. Had a nice big cucumber sandwich too! I planted maybe 4 types of pickers (14 plants in all), so they will be getting ripe a longer time span. Cukes can grow an INCH overnight!! I expect that by tomorrow I will have enough for the first half gallon jar of my half sours. There are a few big brown dill seed heads now too. My garlic is all dug up and dried well so far so good. Now, if I could only taste food again without this horribly lingering smell and aftertaste from prednisone. I cant even drink water without gagging.
Cukes LOVE 90 degrees. Also LOTS AND LOTS of water! Peppers HATE 90 dregees and stop producing. If you miss a few big cukes when picking, they can get so large (overnight!) that all the energy in the plants is taken up by that one oversized cuke, and the rest all suffer stuntedness, and slow growing. I dosed the leaves of my picklers with liquid kelp last week and that made them wake up a lot. Nearby watermelon is also finally showing a few baseball sized seedless ones I hope.

Whiteflies here too, but not on cukes, just on waxed beans when I disturb the plants. There are blue sticky traps for white flies that can help get rid of most. Place a few nearby the plants at about the same height level. I use cuke beetle yellow sticky traps, and these also have cuke beetle scent lures. All 4 sides of the traps have many bugs already stuck. Get some Neem oil and water, to spray the undersides of the plants leaves. It kills white files and many chewers, as well as acting as an insect repellent. Bees and beneficals have no problems with it either. I have not really seen much white fly damages of any kind in most years, but they do scatter once the plants are disturbed. Lettuce nearby, and radishes are both doing well, as is the left over broccoli. MY 'volunteer' is a big huge tomato plant way out near the compost pile. JUdging by its size its got to be a big beefy type of some kind. Got to remember to stake it up. I don't expect much from it. It seems to be happy next to horseradish.

ksrogers- thanks for the detailed information on what can be added to the jars next time I make them! This was my first attempt, so i'm still learning.

greenhouser - i'm glad you liked the picture. Keep putting the water to those cukes, and they'll pep right up. You'll have plenty soon.Take care

EG

With the recent loss of all sense of taste and smell. I tried in vain tonight to make my 'mouth feel' type salt brine. Its very frustrating to say the least. I am not sure what will be the final results for the two half gallon jars packed with fresh dill, and my garden grown garlic. Everything tastes horrible, including plain water! So even a half hour afte sampling the brines, the lousy flavor taste still lingers. I think I may have spoiled both jars. Instead, I plan to try the Alton Brown ratio, so maybe there is still a bit of hope. If not, I will still be getting plenty of cukes and dill for another attempt maybe later, if teh doctor has me off the prednisone. My jars are tightly packed and you would need two forks to yank out he first half piece, which is the sample I use as the taste subject. Been using liquid kelp on the cuke foliage. Its improved eh vigor and gives more blossoms. The honey bees are going nuts out here too, and I try to talk to them when they are nearby the area I pick from. Crazy yes!

ksrogers - I ate some of the dill pickles this past weekend, and they were actually very good. I ate 5 in a row, and learned not to do that again...wow, that 5th one was intense! I made 6 quarts of the Mrs. Wages bread and butter pickles last night...can't wait to try them! Take care.
EG

OK, here ya go Ken! With "real" dill and garlic cloves!!
Had a few larger cukes so made just 2 qts. of sliced ones.

(SMILE)
Deanna

Really look GREAT!! After a bit more research about mixes, I determine that most all of the Ball brands of Dill type mixes had sugar added as the first ingriedient. Needless to say that with Dill and that pickle mix, they will not be authentic. B&B pickles use plenty of celery seed and mustard seeds. I crinkle cut mine and add a bit of sliced onion and a few dried sweet red pepper pieces for color contrast.

Blech! NO sugar in my dills.
Just water, vinegar, salt, cukes, dill and garlic. That's it, no more.

If I want sugar, I'll eat a sweet pickle! LOL

And I do........on occasion...

Deanna

WOW Deanna!

Those look so good!

What recipe did you use?

I'm going to try to make some pickles for the first time. I don't want to use "pickle mixes".

Lynn :)

Wow, beautiful EG and Deanna.

EG, where did you get plain lids? The new Ball lids have more writing space but I'd still prefer plain. I remember trying to write "Mama Hall's green tomato relish" on the banner-style lids in Deanna's picture.

What kind of engineer are you? I'm a power engineer at an electric utility.

Melissa

Plain lids- Golden Harvest. The dill pickle mixes that work well for me (as well as adding more fresh dill and plenty of garlic) are just the Mrs. Wages brand dills I like. Ball mixes have sugar, and so they are not my favorites. The Polish Dill mix has a few peppercons, for a hint of spicy heat. The Kosher dill mix has a bit more garlic taste.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mrs. Wages Mixes

Does Golden Harvest sell lids, or do you have to buy jars to get them? I don't use the lids that are already on the jars since they have the indentation already.

Melissa

GH lids are usually sold with and without the jars. Just like Ball also offers them that way too. Also, GH has the lid and ring only in a box as well. Only issue is the lids sell out very fast and so you need to grab them as soon as you see any. Because I don't use many wide mouth jars, I usually don't buy wide lids, but even for that I have not see the GH version around here. Because I attach a 2 inch round label to the lids, I don't care if they have printing on the metal or not. Some 'fancy' jars from Ball have gingham or fruit graphics, but these are harder to find as a seperate lid

Here is a link that might be useful: Fancy canning lids.

I just make my own round labels and cover the writing on the lids. Here's what my labels for the dills look like:

I just didn't have them on yet when I took the picture.

And Lynn, here's the recipe I use.

Chase's Dills
=============
You can usually count on between 6-8 dills (cukes) per 1 quart jar, depending on size.
Use 3" to 4" cukes that have just been picked.
Place the cukes in ice cold water (I use my bath tub!!) and add a bag or two of
ice to the water. The cukes should stay in the ice water for a minimum of 2
hours but no more than 8. Refresh the ice as required.
I make the brine in great big batches using this ratio:
2 cups white vinegar
6 cups water
1/3 cup coarse pickling salt
For each jar of dills you will need 2 nice size garlic cloves peeled and cut in
half (4 pieces) and two dill heads. Leave the cukes whole.
I sterilize my jars using the sani cycle of the dishwasher (you could
boil the jars instead) When they are really hot, almost at the end of
the cycle I place them in a oven at 150 degrees to keep them good and
hot.
Make the brine and bring the brine to a full and rolling boil.
Place the rings and lids in a large saucepan with water and bring them
almost to the boil. Then turn down but keep them hot.
Place the cukes, garlic and dill in the hot jars. I do garlic, dill,
cukes, garlic, dill. Pour brine over the cukes. Only do 2 jars at a
time, leave the rest in the oven to keep them hot.
Wipe the rim really well, this is critical to sealing, and place lid
and ring on and screw to finger tight. Let sit 6-8 weeks before eating!

And, yes, I know the vinegar/water ratio isn't "approved". My choice to use the recipe.

Deanna

Thank you, Deanna

I can't wait to try them. I haven't had a homemade pickle in years.

The produce manager at the store has me on his list for a lug of cucumbers that are grown locally.

Lynn

Home canning is truly a work of art.