Sweet Pumpkin Pickles and Jardiniere

This weekend, I am teaching a class for Ann Arbor Rec and Ed about making pickles. These two recipes are the ones we are going to make in the class...both inspired by recipes I saw in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  and The Joy of Pickling. I've tweaked them a little to make them work out for my class of 6.

Sweet Pumpkin Pickles
Makes about 6 pints

Brine:
2 cinnamon sticks, halved
12 whole allspice
10 whole cloves
1 lemon
6 c. granulated sugar
4 c. white vinegar

Pumpkin
6 lbs pie pumpkins (depends on size) to make 24 cups peeled seeded pie pumpkin cut into 3/4 inch cubes

Tie spices in a square of cheesecloth; set aside.  Zest lemon, remove pith and separate sections from the membrane and coarsely chop.  Squeeze any juice from the membrane into a stainless steel pot, and add zest and sections.  Add spice bag, sugar and vinegar and boil for 10 minutes.  Add pumpkin and heat through, about 3 minutes.

Pack pumpkin into hot pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Ladle hot syrup into jars leaving 1/2 inch space. Process for 20 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Jardiniere
Makes about 6 pints

Prepare 12 cups fall vegetables, including pepper strips, pattypan squash, carrots, shallots, cauliflower florets.  Prepare 5 pint jars.  Into each jar, place....

a garlic clove
4 peppercorns
4 allspice berries
a fresh tarragon sprig -OR-  a bay leaf
a fresh thyme sprig -OR- a oregano sprig
a fresh hot pepper or two

Fill each jar with vegetables. Prepare a brine with:

2 3/4 c. white wine vinegar or cider vinegar
2 1/2 c. water
5 t. pickling salt

Bring brine to a boil in a non reactive pot, stirring to dissolve the salt.   Pour brine over vegetables, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Cap and process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.   Store jars in a cool dark space for a month.