Pickling...

Well, hello again.  

It's me.

Yes, I am alive and kicking.

In fact, I've had a conversation recently with Hub, where I've told him, if I kick the bucket before he does, he must come on here and inform my beloved readers.  I tell you that, just so you know... when I disappear, and you don't hear anything, I'm probably still breathing.

Truth is, I don't know that I have any good reason why I sometimes disappear for weeks at a time, but it happens and I'm always so grateful to find I have generous visitors who haven't yet given up on me.  I hope that's still true.

Life has been good. 

The weather has markedly improved since I last complained about it.  August went out like it was the beginning of an October Indian Summer.  And the week ahead looks like another cool down.  Summer weather like this is a gift.  I don't imagine we'd appreciate it nearly as much as we do if we didn't have to suffer through a fair amount of hot and humid misery. 

As the summer winds down, my days are a mix of things.  One of these days I plan to write a summary of all the good things this summer, but at the moment I'm a bit preoccupied with pickle making and canning beans.  It's a lot of work, but it is so satisfying to see shiny jars of food filled with things I've grown and preserved.

It's been three years since I've canned pickles and made sweet relish.  I couldn't find the recipes I used in 2022, so I ended up experimenting again with tested recipes.

The heat we had earlier turned a lot of my cucumbers awfully bitter, and unfortunately I had to throw out the first batches of relish and pickles I made a few weeks ago.  

With better temperatures, the cukes are now decent, and I finally accumulated enough, and got up the gumption to make some more relish.

By the time I got to the onions, I was lamenting that I don't own a food processor.  I had a food processor many years ago, and every time I used it I found I hated cleaning it.  So much so that I ended up getting rid of it.  And generally speaking, I haven't missed it. But chopping up all those veggies for sweet relish this time around - especially the onions, had me online pricing what a food processor costs these days.  My hands have lost some stamina, and my crying eyes were begging for relief.

But I persevered, and finally had everything chopped, salted, put under water and into the fridge for 24 hours.  Good thing the recipe called for this long of a salting time. I needed the break.

The next day, I was ready to try out a new-to-me recipe that uses lemon juice instead of vinegar.  I had chopped so many veggies, I was able to make three relish batches, tweaking each one with ingredients to determine what my favorite might be.  

Below is a video I followed (and tweaked) making a lemon juice based sweet relish:

Checking it against a Ball recipe, I am confident that the acidity of the recipe used in the video matches (or exceeds) the tested vinegar-based recipe.

I can't wait to have a taste test with someone(s) to help determine what combination of spices are preferred, and whether there is much difference between using lemon juice or vinegar.  I tasted as I went, but after a while I lost the ability to distinguish much difference between them. I hope to get enough cucumbers still to make at least one more batch of this relish, and try it with less sugar.  

A few jars at a time, I'm also making dill pickles. 

 

The last time I made dill pickles (in 2022), they lasted me two years.  I have no idea how many pints that was, but last night I finished canning my 17th jar.

I'm the only dill pickle eater here, but I can easily go through a pint jar of dill slices every two or three weeks.  Hopefully, what I've canned is good.  You never truly know until you pop a jar open...

Green beans are pressure canned in small batches too, as that is how they are coming on.  And one of these days, I want to try making a sweet onion relish.  I had some store bought vadalia onion relish a few weeks ago at a pitch-in, and ever since, I've been thinking about making some.

Truth is, I'm not a big sweet relish eater, but I find it fun to make, and when I'm successful with it, I love to give it to people who like it more than me.  It's also good to use in some recipes, so I tend to have a jar in the fridge for those occasions.

So, I'm curious who of my readers are pickle eaters?  Do you like sweet or sour?  Or something in between like bread and butter pickles?  I'm also curious if any of you have experience fermenting pickles?  I'm not sure I'm up for the days-long fermenting process, but my interest has been recently piqued.