Apparently this is the year of the cucumber. My garden tomatoes have been few and far between, but the cucumber patch is threatening to over run the whole yard. As one does when they have too many cucumbers, I have been making pickles. LOTS of pickles. I’ve made dill pickles, sweet pickles, tarragon pickles, spicy pickles, freezer pickles, fermented pickles, well….. the list goes on. Luckily the family likes pickles, especially the sweet bread and butter kind. If you are new to pickling, you can’t go wrong with bread and butter pickles. The recipe is easy, the pickles always taste great, and unlike some recipes, it is forgiving if your cucumbers are a variety of shapes and sizes.

Recipe:

• About  6 lbs of medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pickling salt
• 4 cups cider vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbsp mustard seed
• 2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp celery seed
• 2 tsp peppercorns

Combine cucumber and onion slices in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cover with ice cubes. Let sit 2 hours. Drain and rinse well. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan or stockpot. Bring to a boil. Add drained cucumber and onion slices and return to a boil. Pack into clean, pint jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Process for 10 minutes in a water bath canner. Find water bath canning instructions here. Makes 6-8 pints.