Lillian Grows Pickles

A side of my Mom's bread & butter pickles that we had for lunch today.

From the jar that she recently sent home with us. They are so good.

So good, in fact, that I asked if I could take home the leftover pickle juice from the jar we had finished up together the other day at lunch. Because I had a plan.

As I went out to my garden this morning to check on the progress of my Japanese cucumbers I had planted, I suddenly remembered something my Uncle Bill used to ask me during one of our visits to Maine, long before we finally moved here. He would jokingly ask me, "Lillian, did you know that your Uncle Bill can grow pickles?" Then he would walk me out to his garden and show me his crop of pickling cucumbers.

This year in my garden, I planted the longer Japanese cucumbers, because they have very little seeds just like the tiny pickling cucumbers that came from my Uncle Bill and Aunt Joyce's garden.

Anyway, my plan was to pack my cucumbers into the jar of my Mom's leftover pickle juice, because, did I mention how amazing her pickles are? (My Uncle Bill was my Mom's brother.)

And although I'm quite sure my Uncle Bill and Aunt Joyce never used my little shortcut when they were growing their "pickles," it occurred to me that I, Lillian, had just grown some pickles too. Sort of. Because here they are right in the leftover pickle juice from my Mom's jar.

Here's a picture of my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Bill of whose memory I will forever hold in my heart.

And in case you have some "pickles" you have grown this year, here's my Mom's recipe for bread & butter pickles.

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Bread & Butter Pickles

6 quarts cukes, sliced
1 quart onions, sliced

Make a brine of 1 cup of pickling salt into 9 cups of water, stir,

add cukes and onions and let them set for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

Drain and discard brine.

Make a syrup of 5 cups of white sugar, 6 cups of cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1 teaspoon celery seed, and 1 stick of cinnamon. Stir and heat up just to boiling and then drop the vegetables into the syrup and make sure vegetables are heated through without boiling.

In the meantime, put your canning jars (pint size) into hot water and bring them to a boil for about 5 minutes, then pick them up out of the water with tongs. Separately, put your lids and screw caps into hot water (do not boil).

Fill jars with hot cucumbers, make sure you wipe around the rims before you put on the lids and screw caps and turn them upside down on a towel to seal them.

When cool enough you can turn them right side up and make sure lids are properly sealed and do not pop up.

Makes about 6 pints, more or less depending on size of your vegetables.

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Bon appetit!