Piccalilli! Yes, today was Piccalilli day. As you know, I chopped up all the cucumbers, (6 pounds of them!) onions and peppers yesterday. Everything soaked overnight in a heavy salty brine. This afternoon I drained the vegetables, and then cooked it all up with the vinegar and spices.
It took a while to simmer the pickles until they were tender/crisp.
Then Hubby came in and helped me with the canning. He is a master! I present the hot sterilized jars to him, he fills them, and then I seal them.
After we were done, I did up the dishes, and Hubby came into the kitchen, hugged me and said, “Well, look at this! Maribeth’s Piccalilli! Maribeth’s vegetables from her garden! And you’re doing all this canning!” He was smiling and I knew he was proud of me.
I am sitting here thinking back to when I was in High School.
Back then, I really wanted a home in New Hampshire, a vegetable garden, and to learn to can the stuff I was growing. It seemed so romantic and so wonderful.
Fast forward 30 years. I have all of the above, but I have learned that it isn’t quite as “romantic” as I thought. I remember the digging of the garden in the heat and getting sunburnt, I remember planting everything the day before Hubby’s surgery and hoping I’d done it all right. I remember doing the “cultivating and weeding”.
I remember watching over the garden, thinking it would never grow. Now. I go out each day and hope upon hope that I won’t have too much produce. My neighbors now pull their shades down and pretend they aren’t home when they see me coming with more summer squash!
I have to say that the joys of gardening are many, even if the work is tough. I will be doing it again next year. I’m already planning it…
My, my that was a lot of cucumbers! I’m so glad that you got so much joy from your garden this year.
Dear Maribeth,
I laughed so much when I read gardening is a “romantic” job…hihihi
and right now you (we) know it is a hard job but it makes us happy as well.
Love Uschi
The Piccalilli looks good!
We might try doing that with our cucumbers sometime 🙂
I tried to leave a comment on your Saturday Photo but it would not let me! So I will leave on here. The pet photos were wonderful. Lots of happy smiles and then all the humans looked happy too!
Thanks for stopping by my on Saturday!
Your canning looks like a lot of hard work but I have always wanted a garden big enough so I could can. So far we have managed to make enough to have at meal times but not enough to can up. Yours looks wonderful! And while I agree hard work is not romantic it does appear to be very fulfilling! I hope you have a magnificent Monday!
Hi Mom,
Happy Monday! Hope you enjoyed your weekend, and have a good day today! I’m exhausted after this weekend–I don’t think I had a second to rest until 9pm last night, and had a double header in softball yesterday (from 11-3)! It was hot!
Talk soon!
Love,
Mandy
It really looks yummy…..and I loved your comment about your neighbors. Toooo funny.
:-)s
linda
I just peeled and sliced 5 pounds of peaches. I am amazed at how nice canned peaches look. These puppies were RIPE and I guess it doesn’t matter how they’ll look, I’m making 2 peach pies and peach cobbler. They came from my neighbor. It astonishes me that people grow fruit in their backyards and it comes out looking great and tasting great.
I love canning. It is a proud moment isn’t it?
Pam
I wish I was one of your neighbors…I wouldn’t pull my shades. Great pics!