Gardening and Pickling

I recently started a foray into pickling.  This comes after my limited success with gardening of sorts.  I thought for a long time I couldn't grow anything.  I killed aloe vera, which I've been told is one of the easiest plants to grow.  I convinced myself I didn't have a green thumb. 

I don't know why I wanted to try again, but I have always wanted a pepper plant, so I gave it a shot.  I bought the little guy at Lowe's and put him on my patio.  Immediately he produced two peppers, but then did little else.  I'm pretty sure I did everything one could do wrong to my pepper plant, including leaving the poor thing out during the most significant snow Texas has see in several years.  I apologized to him profusely, begging it not to die.  To my excitement/astonishment, he lived.  This spring he produced about 5 peppers, all of them MUCH hotter than the two initial peppers.  I'm convinced he was mad at me for the snowstorm incident.

After the success of my pepper plant, I started some herbs, including basil which I grew from the seed.  I now have chive, mint, my basil and yes, even an aloe vera plant (which I'm happy to say is doing very well). 

So now I am on to pickling.  I ran across some fresh okra at central market one day and thought "I want to pickle that."  who knows why?  It seemed like a good idea.  I bought the okra and some pickling spice and went home very cheery.  Too bad I forgot I didn't have any mason jars.  Bummer. 

I located some jars, lids and rings the next day.  I got a recipe off the Internet and set to work.  For a novice, pickling is a lot of work.  You have to sterilize everything and since I was paranoid, I think I sterilized everything twice.  I did a lot of things wrong.  I ran out of vinegar half-way through, as well as salt (not to mention my salt was the wrong kind).  I didn't pack the jars full enough.  I forgot to get garlic.  My jars were too big.  Not to mention the fact that it took me several hours to finish the whole ordeal.  I got through around 1 am.  But in the end I had 4 large jars of pickled okra. 

Recently I went to my grandmothers house and talked to her about my pickling adventures.  I should have talked to her before I started.  She gave me an old pickling/canning cookbook that had tons of recipes, including some of her own handwritten ones.  She gave me a ton of jars and rings.  We spent quite a bit of time bonding over what you should/can/don't have to do when pickling.  I got a ton of info from her.  My grandmother and I didn't always get along but we have become much closer in recent years.  She is kind of a distant woman, but she lights up when we have a common interest.  My mother canned and pickled also.  In a weird way, I feel closer to both of them for taking up this little hobby. 

So tonight, I am on to pickling, well, pickles actually.  I guess technically cucumbers.  I will do some more okra also.  I went a little crazy at the farmer's market on Sunday.  At some point tomorrow, I will probably call my grandmother to talk about it and ask some question about what I think I did wrong.  She will be reassuring but I won't be convinced until I taste the results for myself....a month or so from now.