Pickeled Asparagus

My mom and I had the opportunity to pickle some asparagus, and since I had never done it before, I basically begged her to show me :)  Everyone loves my moms pickled asparagus... when I bring it out at parties, people rave over it... I found out that she uses a mixture of two recipes from my Aunt Thelma and also Ann Watkins, and then she puts her own little spin on it too.

The great thing about pickling or canning is that you can make it however you want.  we made some jars more sweet, and some more spicy and I LOVE garlic, so there is a TON of that in there. 

First we snapped a box of Asparagus to get the woody ends off... I bought it at the local fruit stand and by the box, I got it for 1.27/lb...it was from Yakama of course :)

I got all the jars ready ahead of time.  My mom says to use the wide mouth jars for asparagus because then the tops don't get scrunched and it is way easier to pack the jar. 

We peeled garlic, cut up jalapenos, and rough chopped some dill. 

Now, blanching time.  We washed it all, and then filled the sink full of ice water, and we had to do it in batches because I didn't have a pot big enough to do it all at once, but mom says to do it in smaller batches anyways to make sure it all gets cooked evenly :)  so we dropped the asparagus in... probably just 3 minutes and then straight into the ice bath. 

Then we stuff the jars.  All the herbs and spices that we chopped up before, and also some pickling spice, and red pepper flakes.  We cut the Asparagus to fit in the jar and we stuff it in! 

The liquid that we use to pour over the top is a mixture of equal parts water and vinegar with salt and Sugar...  most recipes don't call for sugar, but we like ours a little sweet and spicy :)  We pour the liquid into the jars, and set them in a water bath for about 7 minutes. 

Then... voilà! We have pickled asparagus!  the longer it sits, the better it gets, but we try to wait at least 6 months before we open one :)

As they cool, you start to hear the jars pop...ahhh, the sweet sound of victory!  every single one sealed, so we must have some something right!  We had a bunch of jalapenos left over, so I pickled them too... why not??