Pickles

OK. I have attempted canning with the abundance of food I have. I started with tomato sauce, then beets, pickles, dilly beans and jalapenos. What a learning curve it has been. I have never canned before, so I picked up a book by Ball jars to learn the art of putting up my food. The book seems to be just what we needed because it walks you thought the steps of canning, freezing and drying foods.

My trouble has been with my pickles. I got 8 lbs of pickling cucumbers through my CSA and was armed with my Ball canning book and was ready to attempt pickles. I think everything was going well until it came to packing the pickles in the jars. I originally though wide mouthed pint jars would work best, but then I realized I would only be able to fit about 4 cucumbers into these jars. My husband convinced me that the small-mouthed quart jars (the only large jars I had) were the way to go. We realized that there is an art into packing the cucumbers into the jars. We did the best we could, but were still left with a lot of holes because of the awkward shape of the cucumbers. We decided to proceed. When it came to pouring the hot pickling spiced flavored liquid into the jars, I found out that grossly underestimated the amount of liquid that would fit into the jars. (Actually I followed the Ball book recipe and it was not nearly enough liquid.) Once the pickles were processed, I noticed that they had shifted and only filled up about 3/4 of the jar. Soon, I they started to shrivel and shrink. By morning, they filled up only about half of the jar. I read my book about problems you might encounter and prevention. I learned that I was supposed to prick the cucumbers with a fork before canning them. HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW!