Ingredients:
2 crookneck squash, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rings
3 jalapenos halves (aka 1 1/2 peppers, sliced lengthwise)
1/2 small onion, sliced
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon dried Valencia orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon dill seed
3 cups water
3 cups white vinegar
1/3 cup pickling salt

Directions:
Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Prep the lids/jars. Evenly divide all of the spices and peppers between 3 pint jars. Add the squash, leaving 1/4 inch headroom.

Pour in the vinegar mixture, still leaving that 1/4 inch headroom. Close the jars and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Allow to sit 1 week before eating.

Yield: 3 pints

Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.

My thoughts:

I’ve talked before about our apparent yellow squash thumb. Our squash has been doing so well, I added a crookneck squash tag to the blog. We only have the two plants so we aren’t as overloaded as we could be (no dropping off baskets of squash on neighbor’s steps in the middle of the night) but we are still averaging a good number of squash a week. I was looking at the stash on the counter and with my crack canner’s eye noticed that the circumference was just about that of a canning jar. I made zucchini pickles before so why not crookneck? Why not indeed. It took just a couple of minutes to slice the squash, pop it in the jars (I slightly bent a couple to really wedge them in) with some spices and then they joined some pickle friends in a quick trip in the water bath.

Our crookneck squash has been really sweet so thought some orange notes and a touch of sugar would be good but since I am not a fan of really sweet pickles (even my fruit pickles are pretty savory) I slid a jalapeno in for a bit of heat.

Try them on hamburgers! Not only are they a tasty alternative to the also delish classic pickled cucumber, they are the perfect size.