Canning Pickles

When my friend Tara emailed that she had a lead on inexpensive pickling cucumbers, I did what any canning fiend would do...
I told her to sign me up.

When she said it looked like the box would be around 25lbs of cucumbers, I did what any canning fiend would do...

I swooned.

When I recovered from my swoon, I grabbed my handy dandy Williams-Sonoma The Art of Preserving and prepared for a day at Tara's house.

I arrived with jars, vinegar, spices and garlic. And, of course, my camera. When I spoke to Sarah that morning, she told me, "Tara said you're going to love the box."

She was right.

Like a box salvaged from a pirate ship, the wooden crate sat on the table, waiting for us to open it. And when we did...

A treasure trove of green beauties just waiting to be made into a spicy tart pickle treat.

So we got to work. Filling the jar with spices, the aroma of the dill and the garlic made my mouth water.

While Tara and I counted peppercorns and garlic cloves, Sarah grabbed a sharp knife with the conviction of what a half inch slice looks like.

We filled the jars with cucumbers and poured hot salt and vinegar over the top. The strong odor of the vinegar couldn't mask the combination of scents released by the heat.

And when we were done, six hours later, we stared in awe at the 72 pints of pickles sitting on Tara's counter. We rested our aching feet, washed our briny hands and looked at each other.

"You know," I said. "When you divide all these jars up, it's really not much more than a couple of batches."

Tara looked up, the pieces falling together. "And if we order the spices whole sale..."
"We should really do this at least one more time," finished Sarah, seriously.

Because, really, one can never have too many dill pickles.