Day 204

Well, I have decided that I may not be a tomato goddess this year. All the rain we have had has given my plants a lot of fungus issues, and I'm just not seeing the results that I would like.

But my cucumbers, on the other hand, have been doing rather well.

So what do you do with a plethera of pickles? (I don't even know if I spelled "plethera" right- I just liked how it sounded with "pickles"...)

You make pickles, of course.

My first round is bread and butter pickles. I threw some hot peppers from my mom's garden in some of them too. And with each new adventure in growing my own food, I inevitably learn something.

Like (OMG!) you wouldn't believe how much sugar is in the mixture for bread and butter pickles. I closed my eyes as I poured the SIXTH cup of sugar into the water mixture. And you must be able to shove more cucumber slices in the jar than it originally seems, because there was a lot of dead space left once I poured the liquid in.

Oh, and pickle juice stains white porcelein sinks. I learned that too.

And now, we wait. Pickles don't happen immediately, after all. Nope. Learned that too. They have to sit in the fridge for at least 48 hours, which is torture for a family who could eat pickles with just about anything...

So tonight's pic celebrates the year's first round of canning, and the fun of learning something new. Cross your fingers that my cucumbers actually taste like pickles and not cucmbers dipped in vinegar and sugar!