Pickling

We did not make any of Dills last year, but are currently down to our very last bottle so I definitely had to this year! My oldest son is the biggest pickle eater in the house, and now that he is nine I figured it was well time he could chip in with a good deal of the work on these. And thankfully he was eager to do just that.

Make sure that you are buying freshly picked cukes for your dills. These are #1 size, which are the smallest and also the most expensive. Size does not really matter so get whatever size you like. Just make sure the fruit are firm and crisp, and that you clean them well and check each and every one of them for imperfections. Tiny imperfections or soft spots can be cut out, but larger ones mean you should just discard the whole thing. I was really impressed with this half bushel - there were only four discards in the whole thing!

We had our pickle party on Sunday, and it was a huge success! There were 7 or 8 different people making pickles and sauerkraut, I had the smoker and grill running all day, and another friend made a huge scoff of Sausages and Sauerkraut that was eagerly gobbled up as well. In this picture you can see a bucket of cabbage that has "the pickle up" as my wife's grandfather taught me - after a good deal of stomping, the cabbage juice comes out. You have to stop until you have enough juice to cover the cabbage.

We started off in the side yard sitting around a makeshift table, cutting our cabbage and cleaning our cucumbers. Some people chose to chop their cabbage coursely and quickly, while others chose to do their fine and with a great amount of detail and attention. We started out the evening using a big (full) juice can as a stomper, but I quickly realised that this was far from ideal, so I grabbed the chainsaw and a piece of applewood that I'd had set aside for making a stomper, and cut away until I had something workable, with a built-in handle. In the end, everyone was able to use this to stomp-up enough of a pickle to submerge their kraut.

My wife and I were just discussing our plans for this year, so here they are so far. Of course we've done a number of things so far, but the cheap stuff is just about to start now at the market, so we have to set our priorities to get things kicked into high gear! If you are doing this yourself, don't forget the golden rule : only can what you will eat!

This year promises to be our biggest year yet, probably by a longshot. And the number one thing on our list is of course tomatoes - both just canned up on their own, and also done up into both pasta/pizza sauce, and salsa. We still have not gone back to review our notes from last year to estimate how much we'll need, but I'm sure it is going to be 7 or 8 bushels at least.

OK, we've set the date. Stay tuned to this article for updates. For anyone in Ottawa interested, on the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend we'll be hosting a party where we show you how to make fermented ("kosher") dill pickles, and sauerkraut, probably starting at 14:00

Right now is the first weekend at the Parkdale Market where they have the pickling cukes. You are best off to order yours ahead of time and if possible pick them up first thing on the Saturday morning and store them in your fridge til Sunday, or a cooler with a bag of ice, since very few of the market vendors get deliveries on Sunday. You need to order #1 (number 1) Cukes. Call these guys to order : Claude Roy & Denis Roy : 613-323-4538. 1/2 bushel is about 30 lbs, and makes about 20 litres of dills. This amount takes 2 people about 90 minutes to prepare.

Cabbage is not such a big deal - can just pick it up on the Sunday at the market. It is currently $1.50 per head with the people I usually get it from. Per huge cabbage you get about 5 litres of kraut, and need 1/4 cup salt.