Canning Pickles With Grandma 2013

Last year was my first year canning pickles with my grandma. I had such a good time learning about canning and more about my grandma. My sister was a little upset because she couldn't be there so I promised her that we would make them again next year so she could learn, too. 

I said in my previous post that I bought the cucumbers at a local farmer's market. I didn't think I bought enough so I asked my dad to stop by there a few hours later to pick up more on his way home from work. I now had two bags of cucumbers to pickle.

When we got to my grandma's house we started to scrub the cucumbers and cut them.

Grandma didn't want her hair to fall into the pickles, but I think it was really because she didn't want to mess up her hair so she wore a shower cap.lol

We had to heat the cucumbers up and wait for them to change color before we could can them.

Grandma didn't let us do a whole lot of work mainly because she had her own system and didn't want us to mess it up. Eventually she let us prep the jars by putting in dill, canning salt, sugar, garlic, turmeric, and mustard seeds.

Once we got our own system down it became a bit easier and we were able to make our own jars of pickles.

Our first jars that will be ready in about 3 weeks. We made a total of 9 jars and gave a few to my grandma. I took home 5 jars, but I don't think they will last until next year.

It was fun to have this experience with my grandma and my sister. We got to kick back, listen to grandma's stories, and learn a new trade. I plan on canning pickles every year and eventually teaching my kids how to pick up on this family tradition.