pickling | East Sac Edible

July 23, 2014
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Today’s Harvest: The Longest Beans and A (Mostly) Green Bounty

Coming back from vacation is always exciting if you have a garden. Plants have grown and there is always lots to harvest. The yard long beans do not disappoint! I picked the first of my Orient Wonder beans to put into a quinoa and tofu stir fry. Just two beans weighed 37 grams and one was almost 20 inches long (50 cm)! I quickly stir fried them with lots of other veggies and tofu in a bit of sesame oil. The taste was good but I think I am going to try to pick them when they are little younger. There are not a ton of beans on the plant but when you have 20 inch long beans you don’t need too many to make an adequate meal!

I have been more than impressed with my pepper plants. My mostly green harvest today was interrupted by a few red jalapeño peppers. Today I picked 1466 grams of jalapeños which is about 3 pounds!

The other week I was able to make a few more Quick Refrigerator Pickled Jalapeño. I made 5 jars so this is plenty for my monthly consumption. Today’s harvest is going to be pickled and then canned! A gardening goal of mine this year was to grow enough to can so I could enjoy pickled jalapeños all year long. I wonder how many jars I will get with my 3 pounds.

June 26, 2014
by East Sac Edible 3 Comments

Quick Refrigerator Pickled Jalapeños

This year I made an effort to increase the number of pepper plants in my garden. Back in May I wrote a little post about my Jalapeño pepper plants. The plants are doing great in the ground and the other day I was able to harvest about a pound of peppers. One reason why I am growing the peppers is to make pickled Jalapeños. I ate so many of these last year and I didn’t have any to can so I am hoping to have enough this year to can. I only can when I have lots to can at once. I don’t want to waste the energy of boiling that large amount of water if I only have a few jars so the other day I made quick refrigerator pickled Jalapeños. These are not canned and I put them directly into my fridge. I am hoping that late in the summer I will actually have enough peppers to can and store for the rest of the year! Looking at how healthy my plants are in the garden, I am sure I will have plenty of peppers! They are almost exactly like the quick refrigerator pickles and I got the recipe from the same blog, Food In Jars. You can find a more detailed step by step of the recipe here.

A few things to keep in mind: wear gloves and don’t inhale when pouring the hot liquid over the peppers or you will inhale very spicy vapors.

June 10, 2014
by East Sac Edible 6 Comments

Quick Refrigerator Pickles

Since I have been harvesting so many cucumbers, I decided I needed to start processing them other than eating them raw in salads. My cucumbers are perfectly straight so great for making pickles! Trellising your cucumbers allows your fruit to hang down letting gravity help you grow straight cucumbers. Plus cucumbers are great climbers and trellising prevents the fruit from rotting on the ground. I used Food in Jar’s Refrigerator Dill Pickles but added and subtracted to fit my tastes. I wanted to make a small batch and I didn’t feel like canning on a day when our projected high is going to be 100°. Plus a girl can only eat so many pickles!

First I washed and then cut off the ends of the cucumbers. I cut each cucumber into 8 wedges. One cucumber was a little too long so I had to trim off the ends a bit to have it fit into my 16 oz. canning jars. I wish I had used my wide mouth jars so I could have fit the cucumbers in a little better. I added two cloves of garlic to each jar and a 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper as well.

I measured 3/4 cups of apple cider vinegar, 3/4 cups of filtered water and 2 teaspoons of pickling salt which I brought to a boil on the stove. When the brine came to a boil, I transferred it to a measuring cup and poured it into the jars leaving about a 1/4 inch gap on top. I popped the lids on and let them cool on the counter before putting them in the fridge.

I can’t wait to eat these in a day or two! I have a whole month to eat them before they go bad but I have a feeling they wont last that long! I foresee many batches of these pickles during the summer months. The whole process, including clean up, took me about 15 minutes so this is a super easy recipe to do. If I end up having a glut of cucumbers and more time on my hands I am going to try canning them too!