How to make dill pickles is a post that has been rolling around in my head for a very long time. I have been unable to separate cooking and events in my life for as long as I remember. There was a summer, actually the summer of 2008, when I lost my fiancee in a motor cycle accident, and I began to can, if it stopped moving, I canned it. Some people drink their sorrows, that summer, I tried to put my broken heart into jars. During that summer I lived in Eau Claire, Michigan, I had the opportunity to enjoy all sorts of delightful fresh fruits and vegetables I canned from May through September.
Michael and I had bought a house out in the country. We had planted a monster garden, we had seven acres, and it was really hard to judge exactly how big our garden was. While growing up both of our parents had gardens, planting one yourself is different. I think we planted about 25 tomato plants, and a wide variety of other vegetables. In addition to what we planted there were all sorts of vegetable stands where we lived. Many times coming home from work, I would stop and pick up something fresh, and prepared it that night for dinner. Having lived in Houston, we didn’t really have seasons, but in Michigan we had seasons, and a whole host of fresh fruits and vegetables that I had not seen since growing up.
I canned spaghetti sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat, dill pickles, dill pickle relish, strawberry jam, blueberry preserves. One day I when out picked peaches then spent the rest of the weekend canning them. There was some irony there, I really don’t enjoy jams and jellies very much. My favorite thing I canned was dill pickles. These pickles were honestly some of the best dill pickles I had ever made. These were wonderfully spicy. I added crab boil to these pickles to give them extra flavor.
These dill pickles are ones that you actually ferment. They take about three weeks to ferment, then it is time to can the pickles and get them ready for long term storage. If you have never had the opportunity to try fermenting your own pickles, I highly recommend doing so. You will have a flavor that is so dense, that you will want to ferment your own pickles again and again.
Yield: 6 quarts.
I don’t think they taste like Claussen, the crab boil spice mixture gives it a very different flavor. They aren’t plain sour dills though 
Ted, do you have any of your recipes for pickles you would like to share?
I know exactly how you feel. I lost my ex-husband in a motorcycle crash in Jan, 2009 (we were always very close) and I cooked, canned and froze stuff like a maniac that year. It was great therapy and I was told to start my own catering business. Still thinking about that, but like you, it helped w/ the grief. God bless you and hopfully each day will get a little easier. BTW, I absolutely love your website and visit it often! Keep up the good work. 
Thanks for sharing your story. It’s not easy to put all of yourself out there like that.
Now… I’m on the way to the market and am thinking about picking up the pickles — I have the rest of the ingredients in the house, but have to think about what I would do with all those pickles! They sure do sound good though.
Eau Claire… I worked up in Sister Lakes til last summer (just a few miles away from Eau Claire). Berrien County is a wonderful place in the summer for those of us that love fresh produce. I’m gonna go pick cherries soon Any ideas for those?
I would love to say my heart has healed completely, and I have moved on. I think of him daily, and miss him. I don’t feel the need to can quite as intensely as I did
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