Pickle Fest and Salsa making are under way.

      T. and I made pickles! This is usually something that my Mom, Sister and I have done together for the past 3 years. We pick a day and make pickles ALL DAY. We make cases and cases of these delicious homemade pickles. We make so many that your hands are sore from scrubbing cucumbers. Your fingers smell from peeling garlic. Your feet hurt from standing all day. Your eyes BURN from that brine. The house smells good at first like dill pickles but then after awhile it is very strong.
 
     Last year my mom wasn't able to join us because she was away. So my sister and I tried to carry on the tradition without our expert leader. I must say we did okay. Most of the jars worked. We could have planned out the day a little better. We did make a few trips to the store for more supplies and we had a shortage of dill. But for the most part we did well. My sister and I figure out how many jars we all get and how many jars we are able to eat a month so that we may enjoy them the whole year long. This year I have some jars left over because we misplaced a case in our storage room. So now we are eating dill pickles everyday because we can!!

      This year my Sister is 8 months pregnant and my Mom is away so I roped my husband into helping me. It was our intention to only do a few jars but one thing lead to another and soon enough we had a mini pickle fest happening. The brine has burning our eyes and our feet were tired. We pickled cucumbers, and hot beans. We did good working in the kitchen together.

       Then when we are finished I was informed that next weekend my Mom and Sister are coming for pickle fest. So I guess we will be doing more! Which is fine with me because that just means more to eat and more to share : )

       A few days before we canned some homemade salsa together. He cut the tomatoes because the juices hurt my hands and I chopped the peppers. Sometimes we use a food processor but sometimes we like the hand chopped texture. This is our second year making salsa together. We enjoy making it and the salsa tastes so much better than store bought that it is worth it.

      I need to find some easy canning uses for the sour cherries and apples in our backyard. I'm not sure what to do with them? The next tradition that I want to have is Perogy Fest. Yum Yum! I will let you know if this happens?
-Dilly