I picked cucumbers.  My recipe calls for scrubbing off the black points of the cucumber and soaking them in cold water for one hour. My dill is not ready.  Can I still make pickles?

 

 

 

 

 

I can pickle using last year’s dill.  That’s right.  I froze dill last year.  It works just fine.

 

 

The frozen dill comes out of the package frosty, perhaps, …

 

 

 

…but it is green and flavorful. I rinse the herb before I use it and pack it in the canning jar.  I put one big flower (or the equivalent of dill leaves) in the bottom of the jar and when the cucumber slices are packed in I add one more.

 

 

With this recipe, it is not hard to can only a few jars of pickles at a time.   I do process these in a water bath.  I have tried that before and it gives me a mushy pickle.  Without the waterbath, the pickles come out crunchy.  The downside is that the jars do not all seal well.  I store the unsealed jars in my refrigerator.  They are delicious.

 

 

I think it is time to go back to my garden and see if there are other cucumbers on the vine waiting for my attention. They do look inviting on my  cellar shelf.

photo credits:Wenda Grabau