This is my mom's recipe. I'm making them for the first time, but I grew up eating these pickles. You can find pickling lime with canning supplies. Mom always simmered the pickles in the vinegar before putting it in the jars. She canned them using a water bath (regular canner with hot water about 1/2" above tops of jars) for about 20 minutes. This process takes a couple days, but makes some mighty fine sweet pickles like you won't find in any grocery store.

LIME PICKLES

From Barbara Lindley's kitchen.
7 1/2 lb. pickles sliced 1/4" thick
2 C. lime in 2 gal. cold water
Soak 24 hours. Rinse 2 or 3 times in cold water and let stand in cold water for 3 hours.
Drain. Cover with:
2 qt. cider vinegar
1 t. celery seed
1 t. pickling spice
3 T. salt
4 1/2 lb. sugar
1 t. whole cloves

Put spices in bag.
Soak overnight, then simmer 35 minutes and can hot.

Sounds pretty good!

I just pulled the last of a dozen pints out of the canner. Now that I've gone through the process and had to look other places for the details, here's a site that can help learning how to preserve foods including canning. http://www.freshpreserving.com/ I used the instructions for their bread and butter pickles for canning the pickles. I love the sound of lids popping as they cool. That means success!

Life that looks pretty much identical to my Mom's recipe :)
Nothing too like smell of pickles soaking in crock on the kitchen counter :)

Ahhhh, the sweet taste of success. I'm going to have to open one jar today just because I can't wait to taste them. Of course Mom tells me today, after I'm done making them, that she usually adds a few drops of green food coloring while she's simmering them. I wondered why hers come out with such a bright color. As Un Hui said last night when she saw this on the counter, I'm going to have to cook a lot of hamburgers now. Oh, and these are the best pickles for on sloppy joes too. What did you say? You don't put pickles on your sloppy joes? Well you will after you try one with these babies on it!

http://www.siloutdoors.com/imagehosting/4244aa92ce17fc2a.jpg

Those look delish Jim. My Grammaw added that green coloring too but I think your look just right.

Lookin Good Life!!!