DIY...Pickles?

Am I taking this DIY thing too far? Perhaps. But my newest venture came about when a bunch of girlfriends decided to get together and can. How adorably 1950's are we?

Not us, but might as well be [source]

My friend Deanna volunteered her canning equipment for our gathering. I have enough strawberry-rhubarb jam to get me through a zombie apocalypse so I needed to find something different to make. After a bit of exploring, I found a recipe for bread and butter pickles that looked promising.

I bought a ton of cucumbers, bell peppers, onions and garlic. Then I got to work chopping, chopping and chopping. I cut the recipe in half, but it still made a TON of pickles...around 4 1/2 quarts.

While my cucumbers sat in salt for for three hours, Katie made a pear/peach compote that smelled amazing. Karen made a spiced apple jam and Alisha made pickled beans.

Katie's compote and my pickle brine

Pickled beans and pear/peach compote

1950's housewife?

Adding the brine

After letting the pickles sit for a couple of days, I opened them up and gave them a try. My verdict: they're OK. I really like the flavor of the pickles. It's absolutely spot-on in terms of the slightly sweet, tanginess you expect from bread and butter pickles. But they're soggy. I really wanted more of a crunch. I think it's because I used regular cucumbers instead of pickling cucumbers, but I just couldn't find any! If I make these again I'll definitely look even harder for the right 'cukes.

All-in-all, we had an absolute blast channeling our inner-domestic goddesses. Thanks Deanna for organizing such a fun day!

*Alternate title for this post was "Yes, We Can!" but I thought it might get too political.