A Cucumber Day

Yesterday morning hubby said his mom had some extra cucumbers; would I like them. Since our patch isn't yet producing mass cukes, I said yes. So here he comes later with a bucket of cucumbers. This is what it looked like when I added our few to the top and sides:

So yesterday I sliced cucumbers for the Amish Sweet Pickles recipe my mother-in-law gave me. It's not hard, just kind of gross to start out with.

Here's the recipe:

Slice up one gallon's worth of cucumbers and soak in a solution of one cup of salt in one gallon of water in non metallic bowl. (Does that make sense?) Let soak for 3-5 days. (This was the gross part...they smell rather strange after just 3 days, but remember that salt is a preservative and in the end the pickles are really good. I made a batch when I was expecting...that was rather a mistake, but I won't go into that here...hahaha)

Drain and rinse with cold water about 4 times to get off all the salt.

Boil in alum water for 10 minutes. (2 tablespoons of alum and water to cover cuke slices.)

Drain and rinse in HOT water.

Make syrup:

2 cups vinegar

2 cups water

6 cups sugar (This is where I balked and used 4 cups instead, they came out just as well.)

Put into spice bag (I use one of hubby's old hankies tied up really well, so far it has worked and a little bleach makes sure he doesn't know...ha):

1 tablespoon celery seed

1 stick cinnamon

1 tablespoon whole cloves

1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices

Put spice bag in syrup, add cuke slices and boil for 10 minutes. Remove spice bag, ladle slices into 3 clean, warm quart jars, place lids and rings on tightly. They will seal as they cool.