Put your pickle pants on!

So we had this incredible drought all year, and then the remnants of hurricane I..saac?  Isaac, right?  Well, hurricane whomever comes through and BAM--what comes back?  The gherkins!  Not only did they come back, but it was the comeback of a century.  Move over, everything else ever.  These things went from these shriveled, burnt, crispy looking plants into a gorgeous green carpet that was positively exploding with fruit! Seriously, we would pick about halfway up the row and then get tuckered out because there were just dozens and dozens of pounds on them.

You can probably guess where this is going.

Our CSA has been inundated with these little dudes the past month or so--although we've taken it easy on you lately, but no more!  This week, our canning shares received ten pounds each of the little spiky watermelons, and our normal CSA can expect a healthy dose as well!  And what to do with all the darn things?  Pickles, duh!

There are a ton of pickle recipes.  A ton.  Something for everyone!  I prefer dill, Farmer Brown prefers bread and butter, and I tried my hand at (what else) sweet gherkins this year, which smelled just AMAZING although they took a considerable amount of time.  You can legitimately can them or make refrigerator pickles.  They're so easy to can that you might as well commit to an afternoon of it and waterbath them to increase their storage time to up to a year.  What can beat a jar of crispy, delicious pickles to fight off the winter blahs in January?

Well, here are some of my favourite pickle recipes.  What are yours?

Classic Dill Pickles

3 lbs small pickling cucumbers
2 c white vinegar
2 c water
2 tbsp pickling salt (this is important; for crystal clear brine, use ONLY special pickling salt!)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
4 large heads of fresh dill or 2 tbsp dried--or a handful of fresh
4 small cloves garlic
2 tsp mustard seeds

Cut a thin slice from the ends of cucumbers--they ooze a chemical that can make bitter, soggy cukes.

Combine vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan (also important; you want non-reactive metal) and bring to a boil.

Remove hot jars from canner.  Place 1 head fresh dill (or dried, or fresh dill greens, or 1 1/2 tsp dill seed), 1 clove garlic, and 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds into each jar.  Pack cucumbers into jars and pour boiling brine over, filling to 1/2" of rim.  Process for 10 minutes for pint jars and 15 minutes for quarts.

Makes 4 pints.



Old-fashioned Bread and Butter Pickles

4 lb small pickling cucumbers
4 small onions, thinly sliced
1 sweet green pepper, thinly sliced into strips
1 sweet red pepper, thinly sliced into strips
2 tbsp pickling salt
4 c cider vinegar
3 c granulated sugar
2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp celery seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Cut a thin slice from the ends of cucumbers and cut into medium thick slices, about 1/4".   Place cucumbers, onions and peppers in a non-reactive container, sprinkle with salt and let sit for 3 hours; drain.  Rinse twice and drain thoroughly.

Combine vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric and cloves in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Add vegetables and return to a boil for 30 seconds or until cukes are no longer bright green.

Remove hot jars from canner.  Remove vegetables from liquid with a slotted spoon and pack into jars.  Pour liquid over vegetables to within 1/2" of rim.  Process 10 minutes for pint jars or 15 for quarts.

Makes 6 pint jars.



Refrigerator Pickles--for any kind of pickle-able vegetable! 

 Wash and cut up your vegetables and pack them into a clean jar. Use whatever veg you’ll eat (or put into a martini): cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, onions, garlic, etc. Weight of your starting produce will vary depending on what you’re pickling. Eyeball it at the market, and if you end up with too little veg, just use a smaller jar (or make more brine to account for extra space in the jar).

Add spices, fresh or dried directly to the jar. For a quart jar, use anywhere between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp of whole dried spices like peppercorns, fennel, cumin, coriander, dill, cloves, or whatever sounds delicious to you.

Combine 1 c any kind of vinegar, 1 c filtered water and 1 tbsp pickling salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.

You can add sugar if you like a sweet pickle, but the above is a standard tart pickle recipe. Try starting with 1 tsp sugar; be sure to taste the brine to see if you like it.

Pour your just-boiled brine over the vegetables in the jar.  Wipe any vinegar spills from the rim with a clean towel or a paper towel and put on the lid. Any lid is fine here since you’re not shelf-sealing the jar, reuse your already used two-piece lids or recycle those single-piece screw lids that once capped salsa, tomato sauce or peanut butter.

Now for the hard part. Hide the jar in the back of the fridge for at least a week. Two weeks is better, and three weeks is best. Your pickles will only continue to become more deliciously infused. But if you break into them early, I won’t tell. They’ll keep what seems like forever, but if you have pickle experiments in there from more than 6 months back it’s probably time to do a fridge inventory.

This makes enough brine for one quart of pickles; increase accordingly.



Pickle away, kids.  Pickle away!

If you haven't noticed, it's tomato season.

I don't know about you guys, but the time of the season has finally rolled around to where I am EYEBALL DEEP in tomatoes.  ALL tomatoes!  Slicers, romas, cherries, plums, pears!  Rainbows of tomatoes.  Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.  And let's be honest here--there's only so much you can do with them, right?  WRONG-O!  Here's a list of my favourite ways to preserve tomatoes!

1.  Sauce - Basil, chunky, smooth, all-purpose--the variations go on and on!  I've included my favourite all-purpose sauce after the list.
2.  Dehydrated - Think sun-dried--stick them in some olive oil a day or two before you're using them, and they turn into this AMAZING tomato crack candy!  Plus, you get delicious, flavored olive oil too!  You can't can this though, so freeze them or put them in a sealed container for future use.
3.  Paste - It's really not that hard--just skin them, puree them, and cook it down in a crockpot until it's the consistency you like.  It smells heavenly, tastes amazing, and is awesome to have on hand.
4.  Roasted - Cut your romas in half, place them cut side up on a parchment lined tray, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on salt and pepper, and roast them at 200-250* for several hours until thin, crackly and delicious!  Freeze those babies for all-winter use!
5.  Tomato Jam - Sounds gross, but it is seriously delicious.  Seriously.  Delicious.
6.  Ketchup - I was put off by ketchup-making because I thought it would be hard, but it is SO EASY.  Like, throw-it-in-a-crockpot-or-stock-pot-and-walk-away easy.  It tastes more "grown-up" than a bottle of Heinz, but it is an amazing difference (amazing--must be a trend!).
7.  Stewed - Sometimes, you just need a jar of plain old stewed tomatoes.  This one kind of sucks though, because if you want to can it, you need a pressure canner (which freaks my freak still).  They're easy-peasy to freeze, although consistency can be iffy.
8.  Salsa - Where would this favorite appetizer be without tomatoes?  Check out recipes that include end of the season produce such as zucchinis and red peppers!

I bet I left some ways off.  But you get the gist!  Sooo many ways to preserve tomatoes--and there are a billion different flavours you can incorporate into each!

Since sauce is such a crowd pleaser, here's my favorite recipe for all-purpose seasoned tomato sauce.  It's for a small batch, but doubles--even triples--nicely.  Make sure you only prepare enough that you can can at one time, otherwise you jeopardize the quality of the sauce by overcooking.

Seasoned Tomato Sauce

6 lbs ripe tomatoes, skinned and pureed--romas work great for a nice, thick sauce
1c chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano OR 1 tsp dried
1 tsp sugar
1.2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar OR lemon juice
1/2 tsp pickling salt

Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, oregano, sugar, pepper and bay leaves in a large, heavy stainless steel or enamel stockpot (it's ultra important to not use aluminum when canning--it reacts to the acid in food).  Bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 1/4 hours or until very thick.  Add vinegar and salt.

For canning:  Remove hot jars from canner and ladle hot sauce into jars with 1/2" headspace.  Process for 35 minutes for half pints and pint jars.

This recipe makes about seven-ish cups, depending on how thick you boil it down to.


This sauce is awesome on pizzas, in stews, on pastas, in soups and in casseroles.  Throw in some other herbs, and you can alter it to the dish you're making!

Hope you all have a blast canning tomatoes and other produce this season!  Leave a comment with your favorite way to preserve tomatoes!