I think I can

Right now we have 30 pints and three quarts of pickles. Dill, bread and butter, sweet and spicy, and old southern lime. In 2011, we didn’t even finish one jar of store bought pickles.

Our cucumbers took over the garden. It was my own fault. I started the plants from seed back in the spring. Planted them too early and they looked dreadful. I panicked in early May, post frost, and bought two plants and put them in the garden next to the two from earlier in the season.

They all grew. And took over the tomato plants. It was a jungle full of cucumbers. We had cucumber salad, a friend provided a wonderful cucumber/potato soup (but that can only be eaten for so many consecutive days…).

So then I made some pickles. It was fun, so I made some more… and so on. I bought more jars and made some more.

Then got overconfident and tried to make mint jelly. Oops. It was like hard candy, or strong cough drops. Yes, medicine. So that went down the drain after hours of soaking the jars.

Back to pickling then. I had so many pickle jars, I ran out of space to store them. I could have stopped, that would have been the obvious solution... But no, I made a new shelf. It’s 24 inches x 96 inches with 11 shelves. I had [detailed] plans.

But I did have power tools and a free Sunday afternoon.

* I wrote this post in August, and never put it up. The good part about waiting to post? I can add the update that the pickles made great Christmas gifts. And, I’ve had requests for seconds. In a note from Michael’s mother, she wrote: “Are you aware of how really good they are? You now have created a fallback business. Gourmet pickles – we’ll buy them!” So either the pickles are good or she likes me too much to tell me the truth. Either way, I’m happy.