In a pickle

Since moving to Lawton, OK the good doctor and I have been on an extreme budget. This is due to my leaving the working world to pursue a PharmD. We are attempting to live off of her income alone (which is helped by the absence of rent/mortgage..THANKS MOM!!). In this quest for the budget we have started to look for ways to save money on groceries. Next year we are going to plant a garden to provide for summer veggies and produce for canning. Susan wanted to branch out early and can our own pickles. This was brought on by the fact that we had just opened our last jar of pickles from her mother. Mama Harvey cans the most incredible pickles that meld so well in egg salad.

We have officially made the most expensive pickles...EVER! Mama Harvey was nice enough to provide us with her recipe for bread and butter pickles and we bought vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, tumeric, and celery seed. The next step was the procurement of cucumbers. Susan insisted that ho

me grown cucumbers were the way to go. According to her, they would have a better flavor and texture than the cucumbers from Wal Mart. So, we woke up at 6:00 am last Wednesday in preparation for the farmer's market. We were out the door by 7:15 and arrived at the farm

er's market by 7:55. Little did I know that the farmer's market is like a yard sale. If it is advertised to open at 8:00 am, you must arrive an hour early to get the best deals. By the time we arrived at the farmer's market there were only tomatoes and watermelons left over. So, Susan surrendered and we went to Wal Mart to buy wax covered cucumbers.

The pickle making process is a two day process. It begins with slicing and icing the cucumbers and ends with cooking and canning.

We started slicing cucumbers around 11:00 pm on Thursday evening. We quickly realized our food processor was not equipped to handle whole vegetables, so we ran off to Wal Mart (5 mins from the house) to buy a wide mouth food processor. When Dr. Harvey did the calculations she determined that we needed 35 cucumbers (yes, you heard that correctly...35). So, rather than hand slice 35 cucumbers we bought a new food processor. We are quickly on our way to the world's most expensive pickles.

When we started slicing cucumbers with the new food processor the good doctor quickly became silent and contemplative. After approximatly 10 cucumbers (16 cups) she said to me, "I think we have too many cucumbers". Turns out that a PhD doesn't guarantee the ability to modify a recipe. = ) Her calcuations were sligh

tly (yes SLIGHTLY) off and she accidently quadrupled the batch. So, instead of 7 pints of pickles we were going to have 28 jars of pickles. Yes....28.

That is the OPPS! look.

We started cooking pickles at noon yesterday and finished around 9:00 pm. We canned 28 pints of pickles. We chose to can some quart size jars to send to friends and family. It was a long day, but I successfully made it through my first canning.

If anyone would like a jar of homemade bread and butter pickles (offical name: Zinger's Bread and Butter Yummers) please leave your address as a comment and I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to send a jar (or 28).