Eat harvest another day; save it with pickling
In a pickle about what to do with a bumper crop of vegetables from the garden? Pickling is a favorite method for preserving the harvest.
The home preserver has two options for pickling: fermentation or quick-process. When we think “pickle,” we think brined cucumbers, but many vegetable and fruits are suitable for pickling
Fermentation is the natural process of converting a cucumber, a low-acid food, into a highacid pickle. Cucumbers are placed in brine, a salt/water/ vinegar solution. When held at room temperature, each cucumber cures into a pickle in three or four weeks. They can then be safely processed in a hot water bath to become a shelf-stable jar of pickles.
In the quick-process or raw pack method, vegetables and fruits are placed in a jar and a hot vinegar solution is added. Small amounts of flavor enhancers such as herbs, spices, garlic or red pepper flakes are added. The resulting pickles are then processed in a hot water bath. After a few weeks on the shelf, the flavor of the pickle fully develops.
While dill is the most common flavor of pickles, the lowly cucumber also makes a wonderfully tart lemon pickle or a slightly sweet bread & butter pickle. Vegetable options include snap beans, which become dilly beans, as well as carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, peppers, okra and mixtures like chow-chow. A three-bean salad is technically a pickle that can be prepared and processed in the summer and enjoyed all winter long.
Fruit pickles are delightful! Pickles from cantaloupe melon, figs, pears, apple rings and watermelon rind are common favorites. The vinegar syrup usually has added sugar and is spiced with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and/or ginger.
A relish is a pickle that is chopped rather than whole or sliced. And while the cucumber is a common base ingredient, relishes come in all sorts of flavors and colors, including sweet red pepper relish, onion relish, corn relish, fennel relish, beet/ cabbage relish and sweet apple