Bugs & Brussels Sprouts Trees

Yesterday I made my usual trip to the wee farmer's market in my neighborhood to pick up fresh, locally grown produce. The stand I buy from is run by Hutterites, and they are from a colony about 40 minutes from Calgary. They have lovely produce! I thought they'd be there until about mid October, but I found out yesterday that next week would be their last week. I'm so disappointed. There's nothing like locally grown produce.

So I decided I'd try pickling some cucumbers. I've never done it before; I used to make lots of jams and jellies, but never tried pickles. So I bought a bag of pickles and some fresh (of course) dill and a bunch of other stuff, including the Brussels Sprouts tree shown above. Who knew Brussels Sprouts grew like that???? I think that is just the neatest thing. Anyway, I brought my bounty home only to discover that the dill was COVERED in aphids, the damned, pesky little things. Lucky I noticed it before I brought the dill in the house. I hung the bush above the freezer in the garage, and this morning, the freezer and several other things near it were also covered in aphids!

I took the dill outside and gave it a good long blast with the hose, cleared away all the aphids from the inside of the garage, and then hung the dill back up again to drip dry. We'll see if I got them all. I will be so disappointed if I can't use that dill. My dad said, "Well, you can always buy the dill at the grocery store." However, I've bought things on occasion from the grocery store that contained aphids, too. So there's no safe bet there, either. They ARE pesky little things. Anyway, I think in a way it's a good thing. It shows they haven't used harsh chemicals to control bugs, so we'll see how it goes. Anybody got any pickling advice?