From trellis to jar

It is early August which means one thing in the Carmona household....it's time for making pickles. Yet every year I wish that canning season was late October or early November when the extra heat in the house would be welcome. Instead, I put on the outfit with the least amount of fabric, crank up the fans, pour myself a cold icey drink, and get ready to sweat!

Pickle time crept up on me this year. I think I am still in denial.....my internal clock has been exactly 6 weeks behind since the beginning of 2008.....I just don't believe it could be August already. Anyway, we got home from a "nappy walk" (gita falling asleep in her stroller while David and I get 20-30 minutes of conversation and exercise) and found Kelcey and Lili in the garden. She said she was out there just to dare the rain (we are in severe need of rain...more on that later). But she ended up entering into one end of the cucumber trellis and exiting the other with arms full of cukes. We saw the task at hand, rolled up our sleeves, and pulled cucumbers that were eager to become pickles. In lieu of a basket or bucket that would hold the cukes on the way to the house, I wrapped pounds and pounds of cukes in my dress and made the ascent from the garden. Needless to say, the photos that David took when I got to the backdoor are quite amusing, seeing as 90% of my dress was serving as a cucumber bag, while the other 10% desperately tried to cover my unmentionables!

We stored the cucumbers in a cooler for the evening and then got started on the mission this morning. Two big changes have occurred in our pickle making world....1) our neighbors, Meredith and Kevin, have a dishwasher! Sterilizing the jars is much easier, and 2) we actually have a kitchen! I have canned in trailers, school buses, temporary kitchens with coleman camping stoves.....but now, alas, we have a real kitchen....I feel so grown up!
"Why is there a photo of a hawk on your pickle blog," you may be asking. Well, I was so excited to document the whole pickle process on film and then enter the photos onto the blog. But turns out David took the camara to town with him today. To his credit, he did come home with a photo of a hawk.....so I may not have photos of jars filled with garlic cloves and dill, or photos of Kelcey, Alex, and I chopping cukes and canning, or even photos of the 6 kids that were at my house today watching Gnome Mobile while I was in the kitchen (all while the lighting was beautiful). Instead, I have a photo of a hawk who really wanted to make his/her debut on Five Carmonas.
So, 2 huge pots of brine plus 18 jars and lids plus fresh dill, garlic cloves, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, and mustard seeds...and taa daa.....yummy homemade, shelf stable, love infused pickles!