Pickle Fest 2011

That's right another very successful pickle fest!  Pickle fest = scrubbing, persevering, and transforming over 40lbs of cucumbers into pickles!  This is the 4th year now that I have participated in the "secret recipe group", it started with my mother, the original recipe creator, her daughter, and I.  Then the last two years have just been my mother and I, and then this year we added my aunt who just moved up to Portland from San Francisco and that is how the group will remain for a long long time.  My mother has been pickling with the recipe's creator for about 10 years now so she is the veteran and the only one who knows the secret recipe because she was sworn to secrecy by the creator.  These pickles are absolutely amazing! They are spicy dill pickles and my friends are continually begging for "just one more jar."  And the thing is I love the pickles so much too, but I might love sharing more...and these pickles are something to be proud of so why not share the love!  It was pretty amazing because this year it only took us a short 5 hours...in the past it normally takes the entire day, so we are obviously learning how to perfect the group members and process more each year.  I think my favorite part about the whole process is clipping and smelling the mass amounts of fresh dill...that smell mixed with the vinegar brine smell in the air just makes for a perfect pickle fest! SUCCESS! Now make sure and be nice to me and you may get some more pickles ;)