Sunshine Pickles

Today I am sharing a recipe that gets a lot of use at my house. If you love a sweet, bread and butter style pickle, then this one will fit the bill. I have tried making garlic dill pickles, but I never love the texture. They always come out too mushy. But these sunshine pickles are easy to make, have an awesome flavor, and last well.

Let me apologize ahead of time for the white sugar in this recipe. I have never tried to substitute anything for the sugar, and I'm just not sure I would ever attempt such a thing. If you are trying to avoid added sugar completely, you will want to skip this recipe. But if you do go ahead and make them, eating 2-3 pickle slices in your salad will not end up adding that much sugar to your meal. Although the recipe below claims to make only 2 pints, I always find it to make more than that. As you can see from my photograph, this past batch made a quart and a half.

If you want to store these pickles at room temperature, you are going to need to sterilize and seal the jars, always using brand new lids, then process them in a water bath or canner. I am not going to give the full instructions for all of this, as I usually skip this step and simply keep my homemade pickles in the fridge. As long as you eat them up fairly quickly, this is not an issue. However, if you are lacking fridge space and want to store yours at room temperature in your pantry, get yourself an excellent guide to canning and preserving. This will insure that you do not run the risk of spoilage or illness!

I found this recipe in Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance. There are a handful of recipes thrown into this guide to everything from raising farm animals to building ponds to unclogging your drains. I think I will stick to pickle-making for now.

Sunshine Pickles

Makes 2 pints

4 cups ripe, young cucumbers (pickling variety) sliced thickly or cut in chunks
1 TB pickling salt (I use coarse Kosher salt)
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1 sweet red pepper, sliced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 teas. celery seeds
1 teas. yellow mustard seeds
1 cup sugar
1 teas. hot red pepper flakes (optional)

Wash cucumbers and slice. Mix well with salt. Cover with tap water. Let stand for 2 hours. Drain.

Combine all remaining ingredients in a large saucepan. Add cucumbers and cook until just fork tender.

Ladle pickles into hot, clean, sterilized jars. Pour syrup over pickles leaving 1/2 inch headroom. Seal the jars. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I added the hot pepper flakes as my own variation. I love the contrast of the sweet and hot flavors. Hope you like these, too!