Cucumbers!

While weeding the garden (which I'll talk about in a future post) I came across some big (and little) surprises: Cucumbers! They were hidden under our giant cucumber leaves. One of the cucumbers was easily over a foot long.

Last night, we decided to pickle the ones that we hadn't already used in salads as such. It's our first attempt at making pickles. I'm so excited! We looked up some recipes for pickling cucumbers online and here is what ended up being our process:

First, we chilled the cucumbers in ice water for a little over two hours. Then, we sliced them all up and stuffed them in a jar with some halved garlic cloves, crushed red pepper, and some yummy dill.

Then we boiled some vinegar, pickling salt, and water. We poured the liquid into the jar over the cucumber slices. Apparently, you're supposed to then "process" the jar in boiling water for 15 minutes, but we skipped that part. After all, we were recycling an old jar and didn't really know how much it could take temperature-wise. The jar is now sitting in the pantry and the pickles should be ready in about two months. I can't wait!