The house will never smell the same

Yes, Sciarrino and I survived pickle maddness 2009, just barely!

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Oh my goodness we did so much canning. Here's what happened. Two Wednesday's ago Sciarrino and I were walking the street fair when we saw canning cucumbers, so we decided to get some and try it out. We were going to get three reasonably sized cartons, but the guys said, "I'll give you this bag for the same price." How could we say no? Turns out it was about eight pounds, and we canned that pretty easy, and learned a few things (those are the classic dill, forth from the left, the ones floating – oops!). So when I went back last Wednesday (wearing Tuesday and pulling an old lady shopping cart I brought from home) I told the same guy that I wanted two more of the bags, "like I got last week." Well when he pulled one bag out from under his whole table came crashing down! So I was just like, "put the bags in the cart, it's okay." And not really paying attention. I had this crazy cart laden down with cucumbers, dill and some green beans and I pulled it back to the car while Tuesday bobbed along in the Baby Hawk. When I loaded it into the car it felt pretty heavy, but I wasn't really paying attention, because I had to drop that off and get more stuff (peppers, cauliflower, beans, garlic) and meet my mom. So imagine my shock when I realized I had just saddled us with FORTY POUNDS of cucumbers. So we tried a lot of recipes and had a lot of things going at once. I think they turned out pretty well though:

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Especially considering we stayed up until one am the night before we were to be at a wedding, because we are crazy people. And then Sciarrino got up, made more and finished sewing a skirt to wear to said wedding. Because not only are we crazy, we are multitaskers. Oh wait, that's not all:

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And I already traded a jar to my neighbor for chutney, score! We figured since we had to wait at least four weeks for the other pickles we should do some we could dig into sooner and tried these two recipes: mixed veggie pickles and dill slices. We can eat them in two weeks. I will be making a salad with the mixed veggies this Wednesday, nothing bad will happen right? Sciarrino figured the worst that could happen would be not as flavorful veggies, right? Oh and AND we still have four pounds to can (because we can't find a product called "surejel" I guess it's actually "ClearJel" we are looking for locally). Plus I got beans to pickle, and more beets… oh and of the beans I lost two baskets full. I hope I left them on the side of the road and they are not like, rotting in my car. Our fridge now looks like this:

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That big jar up top is from my mom who made me my favorite birthday dinner and stuck it in my fridge for me while I was away (we stayed up in Portland for the wedding). Isn't that so sweet? So yes, we made it to the wedding, had a blast, and didn't even smell that much like pickles, at least I don't think we did…

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23 Comments

  1. Woa! You guys are pickling maniacs! They sure look yummy though! And your ‘fridge is packed!!! But is there any other real food in there for you guys to eat? (no, your diet coke doesn’t really count)….

  2. It’s probably the glare, but one of those jars looks like it has a fish with an eyeball in it! I’m impressed – you guys got a lot accomplished. I remember watching my Mom and grandmother can and make pickles when I was young. They always made dill, and bread and butter pickles. Suregel – isn’t that what you pour on the top of a jar of jelly to seal it? I’m sure I’ve seen it here if you need me to mail you some.

  3. I agree with Ceara, you girls are pickling maniacs! Looking forward to opening the first jar or second… whatever you share!

  4. Wow, that’s a lot of pickles! Do you have to keep the pickles in the fridge for 4 weeks? What did your mom make for you in the big jar? Good job with all the canning ( I think it should be called jarring) looks like a lot of fun!

  5. pickling maniacs indeed! i love it! 🙂
    what did your mom make you? whatever it is, it looks pretty in that jar.
    hope you had a FABULOUS birthday!

  6. They all look great — I hope you guys like pickles!
    Sure-jell, as far as I know, is just a pectin product. I’ve always found it at the grocery store with all of the other canning supplies (jars, lids, etc.) If you can’t find that brand you could probably substitute another — but canning is so finicky you may not want to risk it.
    (I think the stuff you pour on top to seal it is just wax, FYI.)
    Crops around here (central Indiana) have been pretty small this year, so I’m hoping to really break in all my canning equipment NEXT summer!

  7. Hope you had a happy birthday yesterday!!! You guys are pickling maniacs. Is Surejel the same as Clearjel? If so, they sell Clearjel at my local OSU extension service office & they probably sell it at yours too. Those pickles look delicious, well done ladies.

  8. Wow, your fridge is bigger than I realized. It is huge and it is stuffed. I don’t think it would be possible to fit that much in my fridge!

  9. You never cease to amaze me! So many talents, and wife, mom, and business owner to boot. I love reading your bloggity-blog. Although, living in the same city and reading seems silly…we should just hang out like the olden days, when you tried to make me crafty. I think I’m ready to learn now, what do ya say?

  10. holy cow! can i be you when i grow up? how do you do all this with a baby? i havent cooked or baked in 3 months since my little guy was born and i’m freaking about how i’m going to bake christmas cookies! please share your secrets!

  11. They have to be in there until we eat them (up to three months, but not before 2 weeks). The big jar was full of my traditional birthday dinner: potato corn chowder. I love it!!!

  12. “the husband” strikes again! You are right, he did get a Costco membership… with out asking me. Bad Andrew. What did you guys talk about on that fishing trip?

  13. I think it is a little wider than normal, but more shallow, so you see more of the food. It’s actually on the tiny side of fridges, but I love it because it doesn’t stick out into our tiny kitchen as much.

  14. I don’t really have any, but it will get easier! The first three months I just got stuff done I could do while holding/nursing Tuesday. Seriously. I held her all day and knit. 🙂 She doesn’t really nap (20 minutes once or twice a day), so it’s all about incorporating her into the project. I do think I’m going to be in a bit of a pickle (haha couldn’t resist) when she starts crawling… not sure what I am going to do about that.

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