Canning up Comfort.

 

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common,
everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful.
They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness —
just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks;
just plain food that gives us strength;
the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Maybe it’s from reading all the Little House books with the girls or maybe it’s from my complete obsession with Anne of Green Gables … or perhaps it comes from watching my own young mother work away in the steaming hot kitchen, summer after summer, canning fresh beans from her garden and apples from the farmer’s trees… whatever it is, it brings such fondness and satisfaction to pull out the big, black canning pot, the many, many glass jars and don an apron for a morning of canning in the kitchen.

 

This morning, it was a complete blessing to spend a few hours, preparing and canning dill pickles with my girls by my side, helping and learning.

 

 

 

 

 

When I was a little girl, I thought dill pickles were named after my father – Dale – as in, Dale Pickles.  Now, my girls call them “Dickle Pickles.” Silly, I know, but I couldn’t bear to correct them.

 

 

We spent the morning washing, stuffing jars with dill, cutting up garlic and squeezing the baby cucumbers into the jars …

While the girls are still young, they were honestly such great help. Even the two year old … instead of shooing them from the kitchen, it was much more enjoyable to welcome their eager helping hands.

16 jars later …

 

Little Leia woke up from her morning nap just as the jars finished … she added her cute little approval to the final stage …

Pure gladness all canned up in a glass jar, ready for winter.
Memories made and pickles preserved.

 

If you would like, here is my mother’s Dill Pickle Recipe. Let me know how it turns out! 🙂

Dill Pickles

4 pound of small cucumbers
sprays of fresh dill
4 cups of water
2 cups of white vinegar
5 tablespoons of coarse pickling sale
1 clove of garlic per jar

Scrub cucumbers well.
Soak overnight in cold water; drain.
Pack cucumbers in hot sterilized jars with sprays of dill on bottom and top. Drop in garlic. 
Combine water, vinegar and salt; heat to boiling.
Pour hot vinegar over cucumbers in jars.
Wipe jar rims clean and seal. Store 4-6 weeks before using.