A few weeks ago Nova Scotia was hit by Hurricane Dorian, fortunately for us there was not a lot of damage at the farm. But, not knowing what was coming, I tried to get as much out of the garden as I could before it hit. This meant that I had an abundance of cucumbers, so I decided to try to make dill pickles, during the storm, with the power flickering #stormpickles. We had to let them sit a few weeks, but the boys cracked them opened last night and kept raving about how delicious they are!! So I thought I'd share the recipe here because it was so easy!! I don't follow recipes well, or measure things, so bear with me, this is a combination of a few recipes I found and a bit of improvising. Recipe:
12-14 medium size cucumbers Green dill heads( the flower) 1 per jar 2 garlic cloves per jar ( I like very garlicy dill pickles, you could use just one as well) 1 Tbsp. Pickling Spice per Jar (I used Club House) 1tsp. Dill Seeds per jar Pickle Brine: 4 cups white vinegar 4 cups water 1/2 cup Pickling Salt Instructions: First put the ingredients for the brine in a large pot and bring to boil, do the following while it's heating up. Cut the cucumbers into spears, the length of the Mason Jars you will be using (I got extra tall ones). Put the pickling spice, dill seeds, garlic, and fresh dill in the jar. Fill the jars with the cucumber Spears. Now take the brine that you have boiled and fill mason jars, covering the cucumbers, leaving about 1/2 inch at the top, put the lids on as you go. Some of mine sealed themselves as I went along, but I put them in the canning pot and boiled them for about 10 minutes, this way I knew they were all sealed. If you plan to eat them right away skip this and throw them in the fridge. That's it! It might have taken me 1.5 hours to make 9 jars. It got the kids approval, so I will definitely be making them again next season! Enjoy S
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It's a stainless steele container with three large compartments, perfect for two boys with healthy appetites. These are not easy to find, but I was able to find them at Fiddleheads, a local baby store in Bedford. The owner there was super helpful and set us up with everything we need. They also have a great selection of fun reusable snack bags and water bottles. We have always used Klean Kanteen, it's the first sippy cup I bought for both of my boys and here we are starting grade three and four and they are using the same bottles with new lids! We also had some great affordable finds at Winners to help in our efforts to produce less waste, like steel straws and reusable plastic bags. Another area we wanted to add to was our wax paper clothes, I have purchased several from Goldilocks Wraps and loved them, but I wanted to try and make some as well. My friend Ceilidh, of Ceilidh in the Kitchen, has a great DIY kit with everything you need to get started. So the boys and I made these. They were easy and pretty quick to make so we'll definitely be making more of these. ![]() These are just a few of the things we did this year to try and reduce waste a little in our house, now we just have to train the boys not to leave all of these things at school! Thanks for reading, Steff |
AuthorMy name is Stephanie van Schie. I am a mama of 3 beautiful children, two boys and a girl. I am not an author or a photographer, but once and awhile I will share about life at the farm. ArchivesCategories |