In a Pickle!

Today I made pickles!

Here they are resting in their new homes, waiting for 8 weeks to be up so I can eat them!

Pickles are not exactly easy to make, but not necessarily hard, either. They're just work. First of all, I had to sterilize all the jars. This makes me wonder: if I'm buying canning jars, wouldn't it seem to reason that I'm going to need them sterilized? If someone comes out with pre-sterilized canning jars, they'll make a killing. At least in the canning population, which I'm willing to bet is a small and dwindling minority.

Anyway, they're done now, after only a slight to medium ordeal. Jon kept asking me why in the world I was doing this. There are jars and jars of pickles at Wal-Mart, and at the low price of 97 cents a jar! So why all the work?

Well, for one, I had an abundance of cucumbers. My uncle has been growing a plethora of cucumbers, evidently, so when we visited my grandparents last weekend, they passed off a sackful to us. It was only after that that I thought, "I don't even like cucumbers!" So they sat in the fridge for awhile, and then I realized, "But I do like pickles!" And thus the idea was born. It's like my own version of lemons to lemonade! :)

The second reason is a little harder to explain. I like homemade things. I like working with my hands. I value hard work, and not just by passing the pickle jar from the shelf into the cart. I like being able to see results from my labor (maybe why I chose pickling instead of job-hunting today), and being proud of something. Usually, that comes in a painting or flyer that I made or whatever, but those aren't quite the same. Paintings aren't useful, and flyers, though useful, feel sterile because they were made on the computer. Pickling--with cucumbers sliced unevenly, brine crusting on the side of the jars, and water splashed all over the kitchen--is real. It's down and dirty. I got to use my hands and make something useful. 8 weeks from now, I have 8 jars of pickles to consume! And hopefully other people will take some off my hands. That's another nice thing. I've made something that can make other people happy! (Okay, at least pretend to be happy when I give you a jar of pickles.)

I think I'm meant to do something other than what I'm doing. How did a girl who loves to get dirty and make homemade things every get into a line of work that requires sitting in front of a computer all day? Well, it happened because I love doing all the other art things, and this one happens to fund my other loves. Well, at least it will eventually.

Someday, when I'm rich and don't have to worry about how we're going to pay bills or anything like that, I'm going to make pickles, grow a garden, learn how to make stained glass windows, and stay dirty all day long! It's gonna be great...

PS--Check out the links I put in the left-hand column. I think they're all fun. And man, that Alphabet Game has had me working for hours!