pickled

Pickles, pickles, pickles! My oldest daughter has been wanting to make pickles for a while now, so yesterday that's what we did. All last week when I would food shop, I seemed to forget some key spice or seasoning that we need for pickling-got dill, but forgot pickling spice-got pickling spice, but do I have enough crushed pepper flakes? So by last Friday I finally had all the ingredients needed. Yesterday the girls cut up the cukes (which we had purchased from the farmer's market about a week ago), onions, garlic, and a couple of green tomatoes and then we combined all this with the vinegar/spice brine.


~the cucumber cut up


~pickling spice up close


~pickles in jars, now in fridge

This love of pickles for my daughter started when we went to visit my grandparents last Thanksgiving break. See my grandparents are excellent food preservers. They freeze, can (they make the best chow-chow), and they make of course the best pickles too-really garlicky and crunchy. After that visit, she would often remind me about how good "grandma's and granddaddy's" pickles are-and from then on I knew I had a old fashioned pickle lover on my hands (like her mom:)
I think the best thing about this is that my daughter was able to see that really the best things in life are homemade-from the heart, from the home.

Now who knew that a life-lesson could be taught with pickles?