Mom’s Garden Dill Pickles

This recipe takes me way back to summers as a child. I remember helping mom with her canning in that kitchen that seemed so big and filled with wonder. 

We would spend the morning out in the garden picking the choicest cucumbers for her special pickles. Only the best would do, of course. We would fill a basket and go back inside and wash them off, then line them up on the cutting board for inspection.

I remember being scared she was going to cut her finger off the way she wielded that knife. Such precision and speed, each quarter of the cucumber was the size of the last and so on until all the cucumbers were dressed and ready for the jars.

As if on an assembly line, she would line up jars on the counter. Into each steaming jar she would sprinkle some green stuff and yellow stuff and white stuff. What came next was all the fun. We would stuff the jars full of soft fragrant cucumber pieces.

Next she would pour in what looked like water but smelled like pickles. We would seal them with flat discs that sometimes doubled as mini-Frisbees when not being used to seal jars. Twist on the funny lids with the missing middle bits. Then she would put the jars into the biggest pot I had ever seen in my whole life.

What came out that amazing pot was the best dang pickles you ever tasted.

I am older now, mom is not here and the kitchen is just not so awe inspiring, yet that smell always takes me back and I remember those summer days and that I still love those pickles.

So here it is, Mom’s Garden Dill Pickle Recipe…

Ingredients
Yield = 1 quart jar

· 1 clove of garlic
· 1 Tablespoon of Dill Weed
· 1 Tablespoon canning salt
· ¼ teaspoon Alum
· 4-6 Pickling cucumbers (depending on size and cut, ex. Chips, slices, quarters, whole     etc…)
· 1 cup vinegar (5-6% acidity)
· 2 cups water

Place garlic, dill weed, salt & Alum in the bottom of a sterilized quart jar. Stuff jar with cucumbers.
Mix together vinegar and water solution and pour over cucumbers. Fill to ½ inch from top of jar. (You may have extra solution and that is fine. Incorporate extra solution into next jar or discard.)

Place in boiling water wash canner ensuring water is 1-2 inches over jar tops. Boil for 10-12 minutes. Remove from canner and allow to cool for 24 hours. Serve chilled.