This is our second year making sweet pickles and I think we learned a lot from last years mistakes, like you need to put the spices in a spice bag instead of letting them roam the entire bucket.
This year they turned out wonderful!
What's funny about our pickle madness is it's only Jeromy in our house that eats them. I perfer Dill and so do the boys. The thought on our pickle madness is if we bottle a ton of pickles then when life gets pretty busy the next couple of years, like we hope it will... hint hint, then Jeromy will still have some pickles till I can find time to do them again.
So..... here is what it took to make around 30 jars of sweet pickles.
We bought around 60 pounds of pickles from Parker Farms in Clinton. That filled two 5 gallon buckets.
For the first 3 days they sat in a pickling salt water bath.
This is what they looked like after the salt water bath. Then for 3 days they get an Alum bath.
On the 7th day you get to slice your pickles, add vinegar, sugar, brown sugar, green food coloring, pickling spices and cinnamon. Boil together a por it over your sliced pickles. Then they get a rest for 2 days.
On the 10th and 11th day you add sugar to drained syrup and reheat it and pour it over your pickles.
On the 12th day you get to finally bottle your pickles. Woo Hoo!
No more having two 5 gallon buckets on my counter top for 12 days!
This is what bottling madness looks like. Kinda looks organized, but I wish I had a bigger stove top or more room above the stove.
Hot water bath to seal the jar lids.
Final product! After all that work they do look pretty in the jars.
Sweet Pickles anyone?
These are really easy to make and really don't take too much time to do. The 7th day is a lot of work slicing the pickles but it goes fast once you've done it a couple of times.
The 12th day takes some time but it's the last day so your glad to get it done and over with and reap the rewards of your labor.
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