Saturday, July 30, 2016

Pickles and Parade

I've been meaning to make sun pickles for most of the summer. Someone at work told me how great they are and how he and his wife make several batches each summer. My husband and son are enormous pickle fans so obviously this was something I needed to try out. (I've never made pickles before today but don't sun pickles just sound extra special?)

Little Abe and I headed off to the local farmer's market this morning looking for cucumbers and dill. There were cars EVERYWHERE. Every street was lined with cars and all the parking lots were overflowing. I kept saying, "what is going on?" until I noticed a few blocks away that there was a parade in progress. I mentioned to little Abe that I didn't know the parade was today (I thought it was next weekend) then of course he got excited and expressed his desire to go see it. Our farmer's market run was delayed as obviously we walked over to view the parade. He highly enjoyed himself, collected a few pocketfuls of candy, and the pickle adventure became much more grand.

The farmer's market had some (not the freshest) dill and nice cucumbers. After stopping to watch some local fishermen filet freshly caught fish (they were huge fish at that) we were on our way home to make sun pickles. Yes, we live less than a mile from the lake and the farmer's market is directly on the riverfront that runs into the lake.

The pickles will take a few days to sun themselves but I'm posting the recipe I "followed" right now in hopes that they'll turn out spectacular. I'll write back if they end up less than ideal.


Boil:
6 1/2 cups of water
3 1/4 cups of vinegar
3/4 cups of canning salt
for five minutes
set aside to cool

Fill five wide mouth quart jars with (each):
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 head of dill
and quartered cucumbers (enough to fill)
I added one halved jalapeno to three of the five jars for spicy pickles
Pour the pickling liquid into each jar and place the lid on top

Set outside in the sun for three days
Then place in refrigerator for one day before opening

Done. 
We'll see.

10 comments:

  1. That sounds FANTASTIC and how easy is that???? I can't wait to hear how they taste!!!! Already copied the recipe but I'm afraid, with the heat here, they will be FRIED PICKLES in 3 days :)

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    1. This is one instance in which I bet the heat would benefit you. As long as you used really fresh cucumbers (that's suppose to aid in the crispiness of the pickle) I bet you'd be able to make some of the tastiest sun pickles ever. I'll for sure let you know how mine turn out though!

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  2. It's your turn to educate me - I've never heard of sun pickles! They look luscious.

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    1. I hadn't heard of them before either but it's the same idea as sun tea. You just let the sun aid in the whole process and the work load becomes way less, thus yummy pickles that are very easy to make. Thanks to all that vinegar and salt the pickles don't need to be sealed and will last in the fridge for quite awhile.

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    2. Erm, I haven't heard of sun tea either!

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    3. Oh wow! My mom used to make sun tea all the time when I was a kid so I figured that would be more common knowledge. It's just a matter of setting water and tea out in a large glass container in the hot sun for a few hours to let it brew instead of boiling water on a hot summer day. I think people generally then pour it over ice, so you end up with iced sun tea. I am not a big fan of ice tea so I don't even make it but again I remember my mom doing it all the time when I was a kid.

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  3. Looking forward to hearing how they turned out. I have some cucumbers from a coworkers to do some sweet refrigerator pickles.

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    1. I'll report back for sure. The sweet refrigerator pickles sound yummy. My husband buys expensive spicy pickles way too often and little Abe and I prefer dill so I think the spicy dill should be a hit as long as they turn out well (I only did three of the five jars spicy though).

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  4. I may have to try these sun pickles. I am not a big fan of sweet pickles and these look pretty simple. (I love simple)

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    1. Really simple. That's what I liked about it too. I'll report back on how they end up.

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