Sweet Pickeled Cucumbers

Am I boring you yet with all this food preserving talk?

2-1/2 pounds 3-inch pickling cucumbers, well-scrubbed and quartered into spears (about 12 cups spears)
4 cups cider vinegar
4 cups sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
3/4 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 heads dill
2 medium sweet white onions, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 12 1/2inch-thick slices
7 whole cloves

Place cucumbers in a large bowl.

In a large saucepan, stir together vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, celery seeds, cloves and pepper. Bring to a boil over a high heat, stir to dissolve sugar. Pour hot vinegar mix over sliced cucumbers. Allow to sit until cool enough to touch.

Put dill and 1 slice of onion at the bottom of each of your sterile jars.

Pack into sterile quart jars. ladle vinegar mix over cucumbers in the jar, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process in hot water bath for 5, 10, 15 minutes depending on how high you are from sea level.

Got leftover juice? Pickle sweet peppers the same way, or make sweet cucumber relish.

Onto other things. I was finally able to milk Eddie, our most recent cow mom. I pulled a quart, and allowed the calf, Urth, to have the remainder.

Horehound

This is an herb that isn't very picky about the type of soil it grows in. If you plan to grow your own, be careful it can take over an area.

Horehound is great for teas, cough syrup and candy. It is a little bitter in taste, some people love that and others don't, just add a whole lot of sugar.


recipe to make your own candy;

2 cups fresh horehound, leaves, stems and flowers (or 1 cup dried)
2 1/2 quarts water
3 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. lemon juice (or 1 sprig lemon balm)

Using a large saucepan, cover horehound with water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Strain through a cheesecloth and allow tea to settle. Ladle 2 cups of the horehound tea into large heavy pot. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar. Boil, stir often, until mixture reaches 240 F. Add the butter. Continue to boil until candy reaches 300F (hard crack). Remove from heat, add lemon juice {or lemon balm tea}. Pour at once into buttered 8" square pan. As candy cools, score into squares. Remove from pan as soon as it is cool. Store in an air tight container.