How to Make Pickles

We have this awesome room atached to our garage called the Man Room. It has a working, brick fireplace and a full kitchen. It is decorated with things like a pair of mounted horns my dad got on a college trip out west, a miniature moose with real fur (given to Nate by a customer at the bank), and a wooden sign engraved with the chemical compound testosterone (thanks Keith!). But before its days of masculine glory, the Man Room was the place where the ladies of C Street gathered to make jams and jellies.

"Yeah, we don't do it anymore," Helen told me one day, over the back fence, eyeing the pile of junk in our back shed, "But we used to all get together and can in there." In my mind's eye, I saw the wood panneled room filled wth bustling ladies in aprons, using canning jar tongs and sipping gin and tonics while pots of berries bubbled on the stove.

After that conversation, I found myself longing to can vegetables. There is something about the idea of people gathering together to preserve food that strikes a chord with me. It's the same reason I learned to bake bread. Not that I believe the world is going to end but...if it ever came down to living in a post-apocolyptic, zombie-ridden world, I would have the skills to survive.

And on a more practical note, I think it is important to bring community back into the kitchen. We eat our food so fast, without thinking about it. We barely know what it is we are putting into our bodies. There is something satisfying about knowing where your food comes from, and what is in it. So when I got the email from our farm share saying I could buy $20lbs of pickling cucumbers for $15, I jumped at the opportunity.

I bought the cucumbers and started calling in the troops: "Wanna make pickles?" I texted Erica. "Still interested in slow food?" I messaged Kelley. "Know any pickle recipes?" I facebooked...Three days later, armed with Mya's sweet pickle relish recipe, about $70 worth of pickling supplies (don't worry, I returned a lot of stuff...see below), and a round of CapeCodders and CapeNotters, Erica, Kelley, Cheryl and I gathered in the kitchen.

I won't go into the nitty-gritty details of actually making pickles, because it honestly isn't that hard. There is a lot of chopping, and boiling, but it is really pretty doable, especially with four people. I also won't share Mya's recipe because it is hers to share, but suffice-it-to-say, it is DELISCIOUS. I will share the link for the refridgerator pickle recipe that we used. And I will offer a bit of advice about preparing for your pickle making adventures ahead of time.

Step 1: Read ALL of the directions first.

This will save you embarassing return trips to the grocery store during which you sheepishly try to explain to the highschool checkout clerk that you would never return groceries, except, what are you supposed to do with the extra two gallons of vinegar you bought?

Step 2: Reread the directions.

This will ensure that your friend, who unfortunately got tasked with the tedious job of finely chopping 12 cups of vegetables, isn't nine onions short of a relish recipe. (Sorry Cheryl!)

Step 3: Ask for help.

Yes, there are people who want to come to your house and stand around in a steamy hot, un-airconditioned kitchen sterilizing jars and mincing vegetables and brewing vinegar concotions that make your breath catch in your throat.

Step 4: Get a babysitter.

Or maybe someone to sit in the living room and play with your son who for some reason refuses to take either a morning or afternoon nap on the day of your pickling extravaganza. Although, I must say, baby Adeline was a model participant.

Step 5: Remodel your kitchen.

Okay, this step may not be practical, but having all of those people working in my kitchen made me really think about how we want to lay out that room when we get around to renovating it.

Step 6: Clean off your camera card and charge your battery.

Or you won't be able to take any pictures of the beautiful cucumbers! Thank god Erica was there...check out her pics and post about pickling at http://www.lifeonharwich.blogspot.com/.

After that, it is simply a matter of good company, and patience. The refridgerator pickles we made should be ready for tasting sometime this afternoon, and ready for eating by the end of the week. The relish is already deliscious. And so is the sweet satistfaction of reestablishing a C Street tradition in the Burrow kitchen.