When I was growing up, our family ate Shirley Schultz’s pickles. We ate my
mom’s pickles, too, but Shirley’s always went first. Shirley played bridge with
Mom and gave away quarts of pickles as bridge prizes. They didn’t last long at
our house. Not that my mom didn’t make good pickles, but Shirley made perfect
pickles. Tart and crunchy with perfect pucker power, we could finish off a jar
in a day. Of course, Mom got the recipe. She came home with a jug of Shirley’s
water. She even had pickle lessons at Shirley’s house. They were always good,
but not like Shirley’s. She is the queen of pickles, the guru of gherkins.
Shirley Schultz has pickle karma.
I have always compared every pickle that I’ve eaten to those pickles of my
childhood, and they were never quite as good. When I moved back to Minnesota and
became a Farm Woman, I dreamed of a pantry filled with sparkling jars of
pickles. I could eat as many as I wanted. I would blush as folks raved over
them. I would graciously accept yet another blue ribbon at the county fair. In
real life, it was another bubble burst, another dream shattered. My pickles
looked pretty in the jars lined up in the pantry, but they were just OK. Maybe a
little less than OK, because I just emptied four jars of them outside for the
chickens, and I don’t think they like them, either.
Last year, I attended an outdoor party at the home of my friends Dawn and
Dale Evans. They served the most wonderful spicy pickled carrots that I had
ever eaten. I went back for seconds, then thirds. I considered filling my purse
when nobody was looking, they were that good. I decided right then and there. I
WILL MAKE GOOD PICKLES. I will. I got the recipe and tucked it into my purse. I
also got Shirley Schultz’s recipe. I planted pickling cucumbers and carrots in
my garden. Dale gave me pepper plants from his greenhouse. It was time.
I was talking to Dawn about my two recipes for perfect pickles and she
started to smile. Her smile got bigger and bigger, and she laughed. “Didn’t you
know that Shirley Schultz is Dale’s aunt?” she asked. My perfect pickles and
perfect pickled carrots, eaten 35 years apart and good enough to be remembered,
come from the same recipe.
My jars are now lined up in the pantry. They look shiny and oh, so beautiful,
but I can’t sample them for another two weeks. I have garlic dills, hamburger
slices, and large jars filled with cucumbers, hot peppers and carrots. In my
real life, the pantry is in the basement, so the jars don’t sparkle unless I
turn on the lights. I’m not planning to enter them in the county fair. All I
want is good pickles, and if I think positively and the karma is good, it just
might happen.
OH Christine, your thoughts and expressions are delightful! “Guru of gherkins” – lol! And the fact that the chickens didn’t like the pickles either! It is fabulous to know you better and better through your work. Love, deb
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Thanks, Deb. I love writing these true slices of life. When I asked Shirley if I could write about her, she remembered how everyone loved to get her pickles as prizes…..and she laughed, because she couldn’t believe I wanted to write about PICKLES!
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Cute story. Let us know how they taste when you sample them!
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I will. I’m afraid….maybe I’ll just look at them a few more months……
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May you have good pickle karma……thanks for making me smile first thing this morning!
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I’ll bet your pickles are as perfect as your blueberry pie. Thanks for your comments, Terry.
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I too made pickles for the first time this year- from my guy’s “old family recipe” or rather I had to wing it as the aunt wouldn’t give me exact directions, just what’s in them and what she does. I had to find a similar recipe in a canning book and go from there. We are still waiting to open a jar…….only time will tell 🙂
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That is so funny….my friend was just telling my that in her grandmother’s day, nobody gave the right recipe. She has an old cookbook and one recipe from her grandma is bogus (she never made it) and the other was missing a key ingredient! Good thihg you know to look it up somewhere. Let me know how they turn out!
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They should be perfect when we come to visit in September!!! My mouth is watering.
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I sure hope so!
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Hm, so will you be sharing the recipe with us’n’s?
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First, I have to make sure the karma is right and they turn out. Then I’ll ask Shirley. I don’t think it is a secret, but I’ll ask her anyway. Thanks for reading the Minnesota Farm Woman!
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If your recipes, old and new, are identical; maybe it was the soil where the cukes were grown that made the difference? Or a different type of vinegar/fresher spice/whatever… Unless there really is something missing? In that case: well, I could never understand why people would be so selfish as to sabotage someone else’s effort. Still can’t.
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No, in this case it wasn’t the recipe, it was the karma…or maybe the cucumbers. I enjoy sharing my recipes, but my friend told me that in the case of her grandmother, Grandma wanted to have the best. Perhaps in the days when women did all the cooking and cleaning, having the best chocolate cake gave them some validation. :o)
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I love this story and know exactly what you mean. I must admit my mind flitted back to the Andy Griffiths’ episode when Aunt Bea tried to make pickles!
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One of my favorite Andy episodes, for sure!
Chris
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Chris, I loved seeing the pictures of your canned goods lining your pantry shelves!
If you ever needed good karma, you need to have it with pickles! No doubt about that!
Loved the story! 🙂
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Thank you! the pickled carrots are especially good!
Chris
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I know the feeliing of never having good pickles – but I did acquire the recipe I’ve longed for – now to get the “crisp” in them – my friend who made them was nearly 90 when I asked her for her recipe “before it was too late to get the recipe”…. and she willingly gave it to me – now to experiiment with the crisp part of it – I hope yours is fantastic… it’s a lot of work dumped out when they don’t turn out and how many jars have I emptied just that way… Good luck!!!
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With my refrigerator recipe, I add a grape leaf. Old wife’s tale, but they are crisp.
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