I often hear I should sell my pickles, particularly after I’ve shared them with someone. I’ve kicked around the idea, done some research, but have hesitated to actually move forward with it. For starters, some of those pickles are work. I don’t want to become such a success that I can’t continue to hand pack each jar, because I’m afraid my pickles will lose what has been called ‘the taste of love’. Continue reading
Category: pickling
Round tuit.
I finally got around to trying some things that had long been on my want-to-do list – wine herb jelly and canning my fermented mini-gerkins. I read in Joy of Pickling about hot water bath canning your fermented pickles and realized in the name of fridge space, I needed to do that before my fridge was overrun with jars of cute, mini-watermelon-like cukes. Continue reading
Watermelon rind pickles and sandboxes.
Every summer I make a batch of watermelon rind pickles. I know there are some of you out there who think peaches are quite a bit of work – yes, they can behave like assholes as Patience so eloquently put it, but honestly, watermelon rind pickles are a far more pain in my ass than those peaches. Continue reading
It’s not just me apparently.
After doing some reading as well as talking to some of my chef friends, I made an adjustment to my pickled peaches recipe in that I cut the processing time by half to 10 minutes for a pint. Most pickle recipes have a 10 minute processing time, some as short as 5 minutes. In reading every pickled peach recipe I have been able to track down, I’ve seen a wide range of processing times. In comparing them all, I looked at the amount of vinegar used. I found recipes similar to mine had a shorter processing time, so I tried it out. The resulting pickles have been much firmer, as you can see in the pie I made with them. Continue reading
Recent Experiments.
In my quest to make the perfect dill cucumber pickle, I’ve tried my hand at fermenting them this season. Amanda made it look easy, so I followed her directions, gathering cherry & oak leaves from trees around our yard, as well as a basket full of dill heads from the garden. I got two pounds of the most beautifully adorable cucs from Whisper Hill Farm and went at it.
Pickle Fest.
The idea of having everyone over to sample my vast inventory of pickles one evening came out of the girls night I had a few weeks ago with what I refer to as the PTO crowd. I’m not entirely sure why I refer to this group of women that way – perhaps because we are all the sort of women who step up and run things and at least a little bit of our friendship is based on strategizing who’s running what – school events, girl scouts, soccer car pools and the like. At least, that’s how I began to get to know them and then we realized that we all like wine. Also, our kids are friends and it would appear we are all the sort of moms who like to be friends with the parents of our kid’s friends. As we sat there on the patio at Bang! that evening, we locked in a date on our calendars for an evening where they’d come over, see the finished dining room that I’d been whining about for months, I’d break out all my pickles for sampling – and we’d include our husbands. Along the way, it was decided that everyone would bring wine & something to eat as well because by now they know the standard Calvert family entertaining mode is that everyone is welcome at any time, as long as you bring your own food & beverages. We had a party once where we tried to supply all this ourselves and our guests, so used to our mode, went ahead and brought tons of things anyway, so I’ve just thrown my hands up in the air and decided to own it.
Honestly, it makes entertaining far easier.
In which I get a bushel of peaches.
A few of you who sat in my early canning classes this season were so knocked out by the sample of my pickled peaches that you had to go home, make them and blog about it. Which I think is actually way cool, but everyone along the way has mentioned how much work peaches are.
Misadventures of the gardening foodie sort.
Last summer, my friend Cynthia introduced me to this adorable little relative of the cucumber family, the Mexican Sour Gherkin. The flavor of these miniature watermelon-appearing fruits has a crisp, tart (think lemon) cucumber flavor. I immediately thought they would make an excellent pickle. Continue reading
While the cat’s away.
We’re on day 5 of no kid here and I’ve gotten lots of questions about what we’re up to while our gal is gone. Here’s my week in review.
Strawberry pickles, take two.
I know in some corners of the world, strawberries are still in season, but here in Virginia, local strawberries are pretty much a pleasant memory. Which is why I thought it was high time to grab the jars I tried pickling and pull them out for a tasting session this past week. Continue reading
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 