Canning jars

I've know for a while that I have a canning jar problem. I have this compulsion to collect canning jars. If I see a canning jar in someone's recycling, I will stop and pick it up. If there are free canning jars on Craig's List I will happily take them off the giver's hands. If I see a canning jar for ten cents at the thrift store, I will buy it. In the 6 years I have been canning in Ann Arbor, I have amassed a large collection of canning jars, with only actually buying two dozen jars the first year I made pickles.

Lately, I have been good. I've realized that if I keep collecting jars at the rate I have been, pretty soon there won't be any space left for me to live in. Terry will tempt me on a regular basis by showing me free or very cheap canning jars on Craig's List. I've actually turned a lot of free jars this year! I haven't bought any cheap jars at second hand stores this year either. I will still pick up jars on the side of the road though and if someone actually hands me a jar and says, "Do you want this?" there is no way that I am going to turn the offering down! If you start canning, free canning jars somehow start materializing when you are around. Most people, I am sure, have the common sense to turn them down once they have collected a reasonable number.

I knew I had a lot of jars, but until yesterday I really had no idea how many. Terry had to rearrange some things in the garage, and that forced me to move a bunch of canning jars--9 dozen canning jars to exact. To be honest, I had no idea I even owned 9 dozen canning jars. And those were only the ones in the garage. I went down to the basement and counted 7 dozen jars. Then I climbed up to the loft and counted 5 dozen jars. I didn't have the energy at the time to get a step ladder and see how many I have up in the attic. I don't even want to know how many dozens of jars are up there! And this is not counting the 75 or so jars in the pantry that are full of pickles, tomatoes, salsa, beets, and jam.

I've always collected canning jars, as my sisters will tell you. I took over the family canning when I was 13. A big part of my problem is that canning jars represent food security to me. There were several winters when I was a little girl that my family lived on potatoes and soy beans. Those hungry winters made a big impression on me. As a teenager doing the family canning I knew that if I filled those jars with fruits and berries, tomatoes and pickles, we would be sure to have some to eat other than soy beans and potatoes. This wasn't something I consciously thought about it, but I've come to realize as a adult that I have this fear of being hungry and I'm sure it has to do with not having much food at certain times when I was little. If I have lots of canning jars, I will not need to go hungry. I can always fill them with food when it is plentiful and have it avaible when food is scarce.

Security blanket or not, I really don't need 21 dozen or more canning jars right now. I put four dozen out on the curb right away (thankfully with an ad on Craig's List, they were snapped up within half an hour, so I resisted the temptation to bring them back inside). I probably would have put more out there, except that Terry pointed out that someday I might need all these canning jars. Good point there. Someday I might have 12 children and need lots and lots of canning jars (though I seriously doubt I will ever have 12 children). Or someday I might have a 3 acre garden and have lots and lots of food to can (though even if I ever do have that big of garden, I seriously doubt I will be canning that much food). In any case, as Terry pointed out, some day I might need 21 dozen canning jars, so I shouldn't get rid of TOO many of my precious jars!

So in conclusion: I currently have enough canning jars. Please don't give me any more. Find someone else who grew up poor and canning who will appreciate them! And if you or some one you know is in despert need of canning jars, I would be happy to share a couple of dozen with you.

A Pickling Sort of a Day

Today was dedicated to pickles---sweet spicy bread and butter pickles and sour spicy salt pickles.

I would love to tell you that I grew all these cucumbers, but alas, my cucumbers are in serious crop failure this year. I was planning this summer to be a big pickle summer and in antipation, planted lots of dill and garlic and about 20 cucumber plants. In a normal year, I would be swamped with cucumbers. But this summer I am getting only a few everyday and those I saved for my bread and butter and pickles plus some for salads. And just for the record, I wasn't the one who bought these cucumbers--this was my husband's daughter's idea. I'm glad she suggested it, otherwise I would have ended up with just a few jars of pickles this summer.

I started the day with bread and butter pickles. I have this neat old book with lots of unusal recipes in it.Terry and I both love the this very simple bread and butter pickle recipe. (Click on the picture for a larger image.)It lends itself very well to being tweaked to allow you to use what vegetables you have on hand at the moment. I used one big bowl of cucumbers, four green peppers, and 3 big onions. I also only put in 2 1/2 cups of sugar. Somehow I can't quite quite justify using 5 cups of sugar in one recipe (unless of course I am making pecan toffee bars, but that is a recipe for another post).

Here are the cucumbers, onions, and peppers after they have been salted and ready to be packed into jars and covered with brine.

And here they are, all ten pints of the them ready for be stored for eating later. In the background you can see the cucumbers soaking in salt water for the salt pickles.

When I was done with the sweet pickles, Becky came over and we got down to the serious business of turning all those cucumbers in the first picture into salt pickles. The recipe we used is a secret Trombley family recipe and since I cannot claim to be a Trombley, I will not share it here. However, it did contain lots of garlic (homegrown, course)...

and dill....

and jalapeno peppers.
And of course lots of salt. If you are a Trombley, you need your salt, especially when it comes to pickles!

We peeled garlic, chopped peppers, and sliced cucumbers, and filled jars for what seemed like forever...and ended up with 31 quarts of salt pickles. Here we are, tired and hot, but almost done!

Becky's little son Finn couldn't wait for the cucumbers to be turned into pickles and had to eat one right away. In fact I''m pretty sure he ate at least two or three.

He also though that sitting in the canning pot was a lot of fun. It is a good thing he doesn't resemble a pickle!

When the pickles where completed, husband came in and insisted that we open a jar. My personal opinion was that the pickles needed to sit in the brine a while...say a week or two to soak up all the goodness from my home grown dill and garlic and the flavor from the spices. But I'm not a Trombley, so I defer their wished when it comes to salt pickles. Terry opened a jar, that was still warm and proceeded to eat half the jar. It appears that these pickles at least have the received the Trombley stamp of approval.