Look at this picture and tell me if you can figure out what’s wrong with my ingredients.
I worried that our last Bountiful Basket contained more cucumbers (5) than we could get through before they’d go bad so Red and I made homemade dill pickles. Pickles, fresh or pickled, are one of his favorite foods. As we worked, he ate as many cucumber slices as he could put down.
Apparently, if you have a blog that even mentions food, you must pin a pickle article to Pinterest. So, consider this one more step in Purple Monkey Mayhem becoming legitimate. You can see some of the recipes I found on my Homemade Dill Pickles Pinterest board. I got tired of re-pinning before I ran out of articles to pin.
I did not sterilize my jar so my finished product must be refrigerated.
I know this image is blurry, but it captures so well Red’s endless energy. No, he’s not that tall – he’s on his step stool!
I used a combination of the following recipes to make some really fantastic pickles.
How to Make Homemade Pickles, Living Well Spending Less
Refrigerator Garlic Dill Pickles, The Creekside Cook
The good news is that none of the cucumbers went to waste. That’s because I discovered the other three were zucchini when I tried to serve them raw to Red. Doh! Have I mentioned I’m not a fresh produce expert? That, my friends, is what’s wrong with the first picture.
In the end, they turned out great. Red thinks they’re extra special since he had a hand in their preparation. Although this won’t be our last batch of homemade pickles, we probably won’t do much more raw zucchini.
Gardening note:
The dill I purchased was in the salad section of the grocery store. Living Herbs… or something like that. I decided to plant the unused part of it. I’ll let you know if it takes off. February in Wyoming may not be the best dill growing environment.
By the way, this package opener
Pickle Lessons learned:
1. 
Zucchini has a big knobby end that cucumbers do not have.
2. Each of the recipes I used for inspiration used sprigs of dill where I just tore from the top. There is no way to avoid eating straight dill with the pickles from my jar.
3. I’ve got to find a way to get the labels off of my recycled jars so that you don’t see an advertisement for pasta sauce when I post something. Any suggestions?
