How to make Grandmama's Sweet Cucumber Pickles in only 9 Days!!!

My mama could make the BEST sweet cucumber pickles of anyone I know. As a child I watched her and helped some. After she died, I got one of her pickling crocks. Most of the time it sits in the corner with some silk sunflowers in it for decoration. BUT every few years, I plant cucumbers in my garden and then decide to follow Mama's directions for making sweet pickles. It's quite a process. I thought I'd share it with you.

Are you ready?

The first thing you need is a cucumber plant in your garden. Well, I guess you need a package of seeds first, but I didn't think to take a picture of the seeds. So the first picture is the young cucumber plant in our black dirt.

Then you need some patience for God to help these little plants grow some cucumbers.
When the cucumbers get big enough to look like a pickle, you pick them and wash them. You have to scrub to get the prickly things off and make them nice and shiny.


Then you get some pickling salt and mix it with some water. You put 1 cup salt to 1 gallon of water to make a brine solution.

The cucumbers and brine go into Mama's very old crock.

Now the crock gets sent to the corner to be quiet and nice for 3 days. You might check on it from time to time to make sure the cucumbers stay in the salty water.


After 3 days, you pour the salty cucumbers into your sink and rinse them off.



It's cuttin' time now. You cut the ends off and throw them away. You cut the cucumbers into chunks about 1/2 " thick.



Now you mix together some Alum and water. You put 3 Tablespoons of Alum to 1 gallon of water.

Back into the crock! Cut up cucumbers and Alum water go back to the corner for 3 more days.


Pour 'em out, rinse 'em off, and put 'em in the jars! Squeeze 'em in real tight!


Add 1 stick of cinnamon and a handful of whole cloves to each jar.

Time to make the Syrup! You need to mix vinegar and sugar together in a ratio of 2 cups sugar to 1 cup vinegar. It takes a lot of sugar!!

Get it good 'n' hot! Boil it real good!

Pour it over the cucumbers in the jars. Cover the group of jars with wax paper to keep them clean but don't seal them yet. The next 2 days, you drain the syrup back into the pan, add a little sugar, reheat it to boiling and pour it back over the pickles. On the third day (that's 9th day total) you seal the jars. If you're lucky, you'll hear little pops throughout the day until each jar is sealed.

And that's how you make Sweet Cucumber Pickles, Grandmama's way!!

Lunch from my garden

I didn't take pictures, but our lunch today with the kids visiting was mostly from things from our garden. It sure was good!

We had purple hull peas; turnip greens (from the freezer from garden earlier); sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, and yellow squash with ranch dip (didn't grow the dip); cornbread (not from the garden); and watermelon for dessert. Oh, I also cooked some yellow squash in the oven with cornmeal on it. I put one of my homegrown Jalapeno peppers in my plate of peas.

God sure grows good veggies!!