Pickling and Canning

[TheUnknownGrowe]

I’m a rookie, I grew up surrounded by jars but this is my first year doing the deed.

This is pickling, I need a pressure canner to can low acid foods (like beans), but for now this’ll do….
Beets, cloves and garlic
Spicy Beans, green bush and yellow wax, mustard, dill, garlic and Hungarian Wax Peppers (from last years harvest)
Carrots, cooked, 1/2 garlic and dill, 1/2 garlic, dill and pickling spice
I’ll do raw carrots next weekend, my kitchen is a disaster area and I gotta clean up.

 

[iTarzan]

Looking good. I plan to do more canning next year. I like not having to depend on electricity. This year it will be freezing stuff from the garden.

I am going to be harvesting some cabbage soon. I plan to make sauerkraut for the first time. I have been freezing garden beans, Roma beans and broccoli. Soon lima beans will be coming on.

Fermenting and pickling stuff is a good craft to know.

 

[Nannymouse]

I've been canning food since i was a kid. That's been a while. Beet pix are always a fave in this area. We've gotten away from so much canning and now do more freezing and drying. I found that i like dried tomato far more than canned and it takes up far less room to store. I don't use a dehydrator machine very much, just air dry on cutting boards, countertops, platters, etc. A friend told me that her parents used to put a sheet down in the back of their station wagon, put the sliced food on that, cover with another sheet, then close all the windows of the vehicle and let that sit in the sun for a couple of days. Oh, i also dry stuff in an oven, occasionally. I made 'fried' and dried onion last year in the oven.

We made sauerkraut one year (about thirty gallons) using a new plastic trash can, in a cool basement. Put the shredded cabbage and salt and seasoning layered in the can, then put a large trash bag over that, put water in the bag, then tied the bag shut. The gas bubbles would burp up the sides of the water bag...no foam to skim, way less gassy smell. The water bag kept the germs out and the kraut compressed. It was the best that we'd ever eaten, even the cabbage hater in the family liked it. I would catch our youngest sneaking down into the cool basement, putting her hands down the sides of the container to grab a snack.

This year, we've gotten quite a few black Hungarian peppers...they've gone into some jars of 'refrigerator' pickle cukes. yum.

Thinking about getting one of those hanging herb drying screened thingys. I grow greens in the house windows, and dry stuff all year long, but could use more drying space for harvest season.

 

[St. Phatty]

1/2 of my jars are filled with 5 year old pot.

Need stronger coffee to do some more serious house-cleaning.

 

[iTarzan]

1/2 of my jars are filled with 5 year old pot.

LMFAO! Most of ours have been used for the same thing over the years.

 

[Green Squall]

@Nannymouse Love sauerkraut. I always have few jars of something fermenting on the counter. Right now I've got cajun bell peppers, sweet peppers and chopped cucumbers.

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Ive got a big batch of fermented dill pickles going. They are some tasty after a week or two. I put them in smaller jars for the fridge once they get to the point of my liking.

 

[Nannymouse]

Canned six pints and a couple of quarts of pickles, today. Used a 'Hungarian' recipe, sort of used my fave spices and some Hungarian black peppers to the cukes. The Hungarian 'brine' is a gallon of white vinegar, 3 Tablespoons of Kosher salt, 2 Tablespoons of sugar (i HAD to add more sugar) boil, add spices and boil for 2 more minutes. Pour that over cukes that have been packed in jars. No need to hot bath, if vinegar is 5% acidity, so they say. It's an experiment, because i've never done pickles without some water added.

While doing these, i couldn't help remembering gramma's pickles that would fizz when the jar was opened.

 

[TheUnknownGrowe]

Ive got a big batch of fermented dill pickles going. They are some tasty after a week or two. I put them in smaller jars for the fridge once they get to the point of my liking.
View attachment 18748645

Recipe?

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Simple basic recipe.

2 tablespoons pure salt per quart of water for brine. I use sea salt. Kosher salt often has a anti-caking agent in it.
Slice blossom end off of cukes after washing them well .
I used dill, sliced garlic, some parsley and a few hot peppers mixed in with the cukes.
Layer cukes and herbs/spices in container.
Cover with salt water brine.
You need something in your container to keep everything submerged. You can see in my photo that I used a small bowl that sits on top of everything.
Cover well. You can see I'm using a two gallon candy jar with a tight fitting lid that still lets gasses escape.
Brine will turn cloudy once fermentation starts.
I usually wait about a week before the cukes are pickled enough for my taste. During these warm summer months it only takes a couple of weeks before i put the cukes in smaller jars , in the fridge which slows down fermentation.
If you get a speckled white mold on the top of the brine just scoop it out when you take a cukes out or add new brine to overflow the container and float the mold out.

 

[TheUnknownGrowe]

Thank you sir….


How long will they last?

 

[Capt.Ahab]

Quite a while but they dont last long here .

 

[St. Phatty]

I bought some semi-pickled Olives from Walmart land

They're a little Mushy.

 

[TheUnknownGrowe]

Don’t think I’ll pickle this….

well maybe with some Lye and a kicker of Naphtha….

 

[St. Phatty]

I'm realizing, maybe I should SAVE the fluid in the olive jar, and use it to pickle or preserve something else.

 

[indica193]

well maybe with some Lye and a kicker of Naphtha….

is that dimitry bark?