We've always wanted to try Grandpa George's Pickle recipe because we know how many pickles get eaten in this house, and it's remembered how good the pickles are. We took a trip to the farm produce stand and harvested some fresh dill and pickling cucumbers from their available selection.
An old family recipe with the kids is a great way to carry on tradition. With canning pickles, kids can help with nearly every step. You do a bit of prep work and let them work side by side either in assembly-line formation or at the same task.
Grandpa's Pickles:
Brine:
2 cups Cider Vinegar
6 cups Water
1/2 cup Pickling Salt
Pickling Spice:
Whole Juniper Berries
Whole Coriander
Cinnamon Sticks
Whole Mace
Whole Cloves
Whole Allspice
Whole Yellow Mustard Seed
Whole Black Pepper
Powdered Ginger
In the Jar:
Cucumbers
1-3 Cloves Garlic
4 Fresh Dill Leaves and Stems
1/2 tsp Pickling Spice
1/4 tsp Alum
1/8 tsp Crushed Red Pepper (optional)
1/2 Bay Leaf (optional)
Brine to rim of jar, boiling
Bring canning water close to boiling, and cook for 3 minutes after cucumbers turn an olive green. Remove from heat and cool. Store 6 weeks before sampling. (Says Grandpa, but he's not going to stop us eating them sooner.)
Here are some steps that kids of any age can help with:
Scrubbing cucumbers
Stuffing jars
Gathering spices
Older kids can help with:
Chopping ends off of cucumbers
Preparing pickling spices
Measuring into jars
Prepping canning tools
Watching for color change
Mom Tip: If you separate the individual jar ingredients before the kids stuff the jars, they can stuff from empty to screwing the lids on adding a sense of finality and completeness. If you put a piece of tape with the kids' names on it after it comes out of the canning water, they'll have their own jar to look forward to.
The hardest part? Waiting to eat them!
For Original Blog Cooking with Kids | Gardening with Kids
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You all lucked out with my double Food-Whammy this week, considering I rarely do anything that has to do with food. On the other hand, I frequently work with kids so today's post is far from being an abnormal part of my life. This was originally the Chef's project but I let him be Head Chef, took the Sous-Chef role, and organized the array of Line-Cooks I had at my disposal.
After the pickles were done, I pondered how I was going to make today's events into a blog. I spent most of my afternoon and evening on this project, googling for "canning blogs," "food humor blogs," "homesteading blogs," until I stumbled upon "cooking with kids" and found a good model for today's post. I read back and back until I thought I had a good feel for the writing style and purpose of the original blog, and then I copied it in my own way.
The original blog does not discuss photos/photo credits so here they are:
Photo 1, model was thrilled with this particular cucumber. Auto+ flash + zoom.
Photo 2, taken in the mood of the model blog, a representation of the final product. Auto + macro + flash + zoom.
Of the progress photos, these fit both my parameters of anonymity and the model blog's parameters of Progress/Product/Children included.
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