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Make Ahead Pickling Brine

July 16, 2022 by Leigh 13 Comments

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If your garden is anything like mine, we’ve got a couple of pickling cucumbers every day, but never enough to can a big batch of dill pickles. Or you’ve got a couple of peppers but can’t do much with them because there’s only five today, 3 tomorrow and 17 on Wednesday. Welcome to the world of gardening, right? If you think there’s nothing you can do about it, think again! I’ve got a solution to your pickle…. see what I did there? Read on for my pickling brine and famous dill pickle recipe.

What Is Pickling Brine?

Simply put, pickling brine is just the solution that is going help preserve your fruits or veggies. The brine is vinegar, salt, and water. That’s it. Some people add sugar to cut the vinegar and salt down but I don’t. When I want a pickle, I want it to be salty, vinegar-y, and delicious.

pickling brine
I quadrupled the recipe and made 6 half gallon jars brine and two quart jars of dill pickles

What can you use Pickling Brine for?

Anything. Literally. Obviously pickles is the first choice but I have used left over brine for brisket, pulled pork, marinades, and Jared’s Bloody Mary’s. The options are endless. We will also pickle peppers, onions, carrots and okra. You can even use it in some fruits if you want. The best part is that you can make a batch, throw it in the fridge or on the shelf and always have it on hand.

How to make the Brine

The brine is so easy to make, you can’t screw it up. The recipe is 10c of water, 3/4c salt, and 2c vinegar. Don’t worry, I have a recipe card at the bottom for my favorite dill pickles. You can add sugar and the ratio for the recipe above is 1-1.5c sugar.

Also, you do not need fancy pickling/ canning vinegar or salt. Skip the upcharge on those items, they are pretty much the same as regular salt or vinegar. I do use pink Himalayan salt but that’s just because that’s what I always have on hand.

pickling brine
The reddish/brown tinge is due to horrible lighting in my kitchen and the pink salt

I add all of the ingredients above to a big stock pot of water. Also, I use stainless steel pots because it’s not reactive…. and it’s the only thing I have on hand that will handle the quantity I make. Next, use hot water to start dissolving the salt and bring everything to a boil.

Once it’s boiling I will can it into whatever size mason jars I have, wipe the rim, add a ring and lid, then wait for the glorious pings. I do not process them in a canner.

If I don’t get a ping, I just throw that one in the fridge to use first. Why don’t I water bath it? Because the pH of the pickling solution (without sugar) is 3.2. Not many organisms are going to grow in that. And the heat from the boiling brine will create a vacuum seal from the jar. But if you want to water bath can this to make sure that it is shelf stable, you just need to process for 15 minutes for quarts and 25 for half gallon.

All of that being said, I cannot guarantee the safety of your food. If you follow this recipe, you do it at your own risk. I don’t know if you, your kitchen, or cooking utensils are clean/ sterile or how knowledgeable you are on canning. I have to say all of this because… lawyers.

Now, do you want the recipe for crunchy home canned dill pickles? Remember, you do this at your own risk because not only will you eat every single jar in one day, but you will also be *gasp* open kettle canning all of this.

pickling brine
Fresh canned dill pickles

What is open kettling?

Before we get started too far into the recipe, I’ve had a lot of people ask what is open kettle canning. Simply put, it is using HOT food in HOT jars with HOT liquid. For this example, we are using hot jars that have been sterilized and kept hot with hot water. We are using a boiling brine and clean/ fresh cukes. Since the jar is hot and sterile combined with the boiling brine which is highly acidic, you don’t have to process.

As a side note, you can also heat your jars in your oven once sterile. I will put my jars, lids and rings in the oven at about 250*. This reduces your risks of shattering and having to handle jars full of hot water.

The problem with home canned pickles and salsa specifically is that the veggies get turned to mush when they are heated for cooking and then heated again during the water bath. Even the most stout veggies are going to be mushy when you heat them too long. A cuke and tomato? Forget it. They will not stand up and you will end up with mushy pickles and soup for salsa.

The term open kettle was first found in 1914 as a form of home preservation, but stopped in the 1980’s. Many canners still use open kettle to preserve tons of foods. Some of us, myself included, only open kettle HIGHLY acidic foods. So the choice is yours, I choose to do research and figure things out on my own.

I also have a quick reference guide that you can download get in my members only section. Sign up below and you will be emailed the password.

Home Canned Dill Pickles

Open Kettled Homemade Dill Pickles
5 from 3 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 2 hours hrs
Cook Time 0 minutes mins
Servings 7 Quarts

Equipment

  • 1 15 qt Stock pot Larger if you are doubling or tripling recipe
  • 1 Ladle
  • 1 Whisk
  • 7 Qt Wide Mouth Mason Jars
  • 1 Debubbler
  • Can Grabber
  • Canning Funnel

Ingredients
  

  • 10 Cups Water
  • 2 Cups White Vinegar
  • 3/4 Cups Salt
  • 15ish Pickling cucumbers You can use any cukes just make sure that they are approx 6in long and not overripe
  • 7ish Tablespoons Diced Garlic
  • 7ish Bay Leaves
  • 7ish Tablespoons Dill Leaves You can use fresh dill at at least one medium sprig PER jar

Instructions
 

  • Making Your Brine
  • Add Water, vinegar and salt to stock pot and get it to boiling, stirring occasionally to dissolve salt
  • Start working on Cucumbers
  • Fill a bowl or sink with ICE COLD water
  • Cut off both ends of cuke then slice for spears, chips, or whatever pickle you want
  • Place in cold water as you get your jars ready
  • Start heating your jars, lids and rings. You can do this by running your jars through a sterilizing cycle in your dishwasher, placing in your oven on 250 or in hot water. It doesn't really matter as long as they are clean and hot.
  • **Please use a jar grabber, hot pad, or something, these jars are hot and the brine needs to stay boiling**
  • Once your brine is boiling and ready, Take hot jar and add 1T garlic, 1T Dill (or sprig), 1 Bay leaf to the bottom
  • Add your cukes, You are going to pack them in there so make sure to be careful
  • Put your canning funnel on top and then ladle your HOT brine over cukes, leaving 1" head space.
  • Wipe rim with vinegar towel, add lid and ring then set aside on a towel to start cooling
  • Repeat until you are out of cukes or brine.
  • Place a towel over all of the jars and listen for the pings over the next couple hours.
  • Whatever doesn't ping, place in refrigerator. But give it a couple of days before you eat it so they are actually pickled.
  • If you have left over brine, go ahead and fill any HOT jars you have. Same as above. Place funnel and ladle in brine
  • Wipe rim, add lid and ring and set with the others to cool under a towel.
Keyword canning, DIll pickles, Pickle Brine
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Homestead Lessons: We Learn The Hard Way

April 30, 2022 by Leigh 7 Comments

Originally, this post was about the all the homestead lessons we learned the first year. But you never stop learning, especially when you homestead. So I wanted to go over all the homestead lessons we have picked up along the way. And the list keeps growing and growing.

If you are just starting in your homestead journey, I have the deal for you! In The Homestead Bundle you will receive our Hay Calculator, Profit Calculator, Digital and Printable Garden Journal, The Backyard Homestead eBook, the Simple Budget, Schedule F worksheet, and Herd Health Sheets. That’s a $55 value for $39.99!

Buy Now

Homestead Lessons:

The Animals

Goats are not entry level animals. Seriously, wait until you have good fencing, a good vet, and patience!

Chickens are cool, roosters are not. I threaten George with the stock pot daily.

Goats eat WAY more than you think they do.

Goat math is a thing. I’m still confused how our numbers jumped from 2 to 7….. Now, we are hovering around 15.

Chicken poop is slippery on concrete. Be careful when you start chasing chickens through your basement.

Animals will die. Yes, it’s hard.

Building

Build it right the first time. I cannot tell you the amount of times we have had to rebuild fences.

But also understand that you will rebuild things. It’s inevitable.

Don’t let the husband borrow your tools. Ever. Seriously, don’t do it. This man has broken more tape measures….

You are way more capable than you think you are. So is your husband.

Garden

Find a local farm stand. Even if you have a garden.

Canning is addictive. Get more jars than you think you will ever need, then double it.

Enjoy the abundance, even when you are drowning in cucumbers.

Learn to start your own plants. It’s WAY cheaper.

Keep a garden journal!

Buy the seeds…. yes, all of them.

Try new varieties. Even if you have ones you love, try different ones.

Plant the flowers. Yes, all of them.

Planning

Have a plan A, B, C, D and E. Maybe go ahead and plan for F, G and H too. Just to be safe.

Estimate how much firewood you will use, and then double it. Maybe triple if you live in a crazy weather state like Georgia.

Patience is the biggest lesson you will learn.

An emergency fund is going to be your saving grace when you buy a house. But when you buy a homestead? You should probably triple the amount you think you’ll need.

You are going to blow through that emergency fund when your goats get sick, dog needs surgery, well pump goes out and water heater explodes all in one month.

Understand things are going to happen that are beyond your control. Roll with it. A good attitude will get you through it.

Save on Seeds

Start a blog to detail the antics and chaos of your life. In a year, you will look back and laugh.

Learn to say no. Especially to your husband when he says goats would be a great idea 2 months into owning your homestead.

You are living the life you always wanted in a way you never dreamed. You are blessed beyond measure.

A homestead is what you make it. It starts with HOME for a reason. Enjoy it.

Bear the freeloader

Since buying our homestead, I have learned so much. These are just a few of the homestead lessons we have picked up along the way. I could write 100 more and still not be at the end of my list. But it has been worth every single penny, sleepless night, and fight. I would not trade my life for the world and all the money. Here’s to the next year on the homestead. May it be as entertaining and interesting as the last.

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Filed Under: Animals, Canning, Chickens, Goats, How To's, Our Homestead, Pigs, Projects Tagged With: Chickens, Goats, Homestead, Projects, Welcome

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How To Build Canning Shelves

March 13, 2022 by Leigh 2 Comments

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I could write a million posts about canning. How to can, what to can and how much to can. But I think the best post I could write about is storing canned goods. For years, I have tried to figure out the best way to store the things I canned. But we could never figure out a way that I liked and allowed us to see and use those goods. At least until Jared came up with my shelves. In this post, I will show you how to build canning shelves.

canning shelves

If you are just starting in your homestead journey, I have the deal for you! In The Homestead Bundle you will receive our Hay Calculator, Profit Calculator, Digital and Printable Garden Journal, The Backyard Homestead eBook, the Simple Budget, Schedule F worksheet, and Herd Health Sheets. That’s a $55 value for $39.99!

Buy Now

Good Canning Shelves Are Hard To Find

We can a lot of food. When I say a lot, I mean hundreds of jars a year. It’s not uncommon for me to put up 50+ jars of tomato sauce, 50+ jars of green beans, and more. The reason we put up so much is because it’s cheap. Before buying this property, I could buy a half bushel of peaches for $10 and end up with 20-30 pints of diced or sliced peaches. I could buy two bushels of green beans for $40 and can 75 quarts of green beans. I was able to get farm fresh produce and preserve it for pennies compared to buying it at the store.

The problem was where we were going to put all this food. Jared attempted to conquer the problem by building Frankenstein.

canning shelves
Meet Frankenstein

Frankenstein was 5ft tall by 4ft wide and 2ft deep. If you’ve been canning for more than a minute, you know that jars got lost in the back. It was sturdy and it worked, but within six weeks this thing was crammed full.

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Back to the Drawing Board

At this point I was at a loss. I browsed Pinterest, Google, and canning groups on Facebook, but just couldn’t find what I was looking for. Plastic shelves aren’t sturdy. Metal shelves are held together by plastic clips. Premade shelves were expensive or the wrong size.

I told Jared, I wanted tall shelves that can hold several rows of jars. I wanted no more than three or four jars deep so jars don’t get lost. And I also wanted a lot of shelves on each unit. This is what my man came up with.

canning shelves
First of many shelves for my food storage room

I was in love. Not only with Jared but also with my amazing shelves. As canning season went on, we realized we needed more shelves for our canned goods. Not just the jars that I put up, but also the stuff that we bought in bulk like flour, sugar, cereal, grains, etc. So he kept building me shelves until we ended up with what we have now.

canning shelves

How We Built Our Canning Shelves

In total we have seven shelves that each hold approximately 300 jars each. This includes things like sugar, flour, coffee, rice, and extra jars just to name a few things. For now, I think we have enough shelves for canned goods but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

My friend over at Simple Living Homestead wrote an amazing blog post about all the different ways to store jars and lids. While I thought I had it all figured out, there are a couple of really useful items that I am looking at. Specifically, #5 the handmade wooden lid organizer! That would really come in handy, especially in the height of canning season when I lose everything. The canning tongs, rings, jars, my mind?

canning shelves

The measurements for theses shelves are 48″ wide by 12″ deep by 96″ tall. I believe we used 23 2x4x8 studs.

Print

How To Build Canning Shelves

Shelves to fit your jars of home canned goodness without losing them. Each instruction is for one shelf. The above picture is two shelves with a middle brace.
Yield: 1 Upright shelf

Equipment

  • Tape Measure
  • Drill
  • Circular or miter saw
  • 4 1" Block of wood
  • Level
  • T Square or similar
  • Hammer

Materials

  • 23 2x4x8
  • A LOT 2" Screws we used decking screws

Instructions

  • Cut 24 48" pieces for shelves
  • Cut 18 12" pieces for braces
  • To make your end pieces, lay out 2 2x4x8's and attach 1 12" brace to the top and 1 12" brace to the bottom. Place the brace between the 2×4 so that your finished width is 15". Make sure your corners are square and level before you screw it together.
    Do this twice
  • Next attach 3 2x4x48" pieces to the bottom of your shelf. Use a 1" block in each space to ensure that your shelves are spaced evenly. Once the bottom row of shelves are done, you can stand up the unit so you are not on the ground.
  • Now you are going to attach the next brace 12" above your previous shelf. Double check that a quart jar will fit between your shelves. I can fit my half gallon jars as well but it's better to measure and adjust now than to have an entire shelfing unit that is wrong.
  • Keep going until you reach the top. The top shelf to the top brace is not 12", this is normal. I usually put extra jars or half gallon jars up on top.

Notes

We love these shelves and Jared was able to build these quickly and with relative ease. 
Always double check your measurements. We wanted 4ft shelves but if you don’t have that much room, change the width. 
We used 2″ decking screws but feel free to use whatever. As long as it’s long enough to go through the shelf and the brace, you’re good to go. Just don’t use nails
If you are in an area prone to earthquakes or have a dog like Blu, figure out a way to attach these to the wall. We used spare 2×4 chunks and attached them to the rafters. 
On the note of earthquakes or a dog like Blu, figure out a way to keep your jars from falling off the front or back. We used furring strips to help keep jars from crashing to the ground when Blu decides to go running through the basement.
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I hope you enjoyed this article and if you need any help with measurements or how to do it, just leave a comment!

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WELCOME

WELCOME

My name is Leigh and I am the lead chaos creator here at Steel Raven Farms. You will see throughout this blog that I am the crazy goat lady.

I am married to my high school sweetheart, Jared and we have two amazing boys.

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My name is Leigh and I am the owner of Steel Raven Farms. I am also the mom of two wonderful boys, wife to a pretty nifty man for the last 15 years and paramedic to boot. We want to bring you along on our crazy journey of Homesteading and all that entails!

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