I am so happy to be able to be back on my website, posting on my blog. I have had quite a week. Well, quite a month. But mostly, I have been side-tracked with stuff like moving and a garage sale. Craigslist ads and Goodwill donations.
As far as I'm concerned, it's never a good time to move, but right smack dab in the middle of my favorite time to do some canning? No thanks!
My car, loaded up with some of the things we'll need for our Preserving Party.
Today I am getting back on track, doing what I love to do. Making Dilly Green Beans & Blue Ribbon Dills, with a dozen other people who want to learn the wonders of pickle-making. We will spend a couple hours together, shoulder to shoulder, snipping flowering dill, peeling garlic and deciding how many hot peppers in a jar is too many. We will trim green beans to fit into pint-size jars and slice 1/8 " off the blossom end of the cucumbers. We'll mix brine, and measure mustard seeds, and assemble ingredients just so in our jars. In the end, we'll listen with great anticipation for the PING, telling us our lids have sealed after their boiling water bath.
In between we'll laugh with each other, and learn from each other. At some point we'll sample some other pickles I've made, because all that talk about pickles is sure to make us hungry, and because I want people to know that pickling isn't just about cucumbers & vinegar; that you can pickle other veggies and that fermentation is fun too.
Hopefully my students will leave feeling happy and with a sense of accomplishment as they walk out the door, carrying their still-warm jars of precious pickled cargo.
For me. it doesn't get much better than this.
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Brook Hurst Stephens
