Last year our garden produced lots of cucumbers. At least a lot for our family since only 3 of us like them. We had enough that I wanted to make pickles – bread and butter pickles like my granny’s.

The problem was, I didn’t have her recipe. So I called one of my aunts and asked her if she had it. She didn’t. But she said she would look for it.

I began poking around the internet looking for how to make bread and butter pickles and I found several recipes. I printed one out and I guess I just used it as a base because when I pulled it out of the drawer I had written a different “recipe” based on what we liked.

Apparently, I kind of did my own thing (as usual). But those of us who like pickles enjoyed them all year. 

A few months later my aunt sent me a package and inside were photocopies of my granny’s handwritten recipe cards. Her bread and butter pickle recipe is a little different and if we get any more cucumbers we will try it.

I know I loved them growing up – but this recipe was written in 1960 and well, my memories really don’t begin until about 1972. I don’t know if she made any changes to it and didn’t write them down. I do that sometimes. It’s a terrible habit.

Here’s what’s written…

1 gal med sized cucumbers, 8 small onions, 1 green pepper, 1 red sweet pepper, 1/2 cup canning salt. Slice cukes, onions and peppers, add salt, cover with ice and mix well. Let stand three hours. Drain. Make a solution of 5 cups sugar, 3 cups white vinegar, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 2 tbsp mustard seed, 2 tbsp celery seed, 1/2 tbs ground cloves. Cover cukes with liquid, bring to a boil and seal.

Clearly, my granny did a lot of canning and understood her directions to mean that you still have to put the mixture in jars and process safely. She kept these in her pantry not in the refrigerator so I know she canned them.

Pickles aren’t the only things to do with cucumbers, you can also freeze, dehydrate, and ferment them. I like to keep a list of all the things I’ve preserved so I’ll know how much of each thing we need to preserve each year. You can get a copy of the worksheets I use by filling out the form below.

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What are your favorite pickles?

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