Homemade Cornichons May 16, 2012

Last Saturday at the Springdale Farm farm stand, I discovered that they had grown and harvested gherkins, and I bought them all.  These tiny cucumbers, aside from the cute factor, taste delicious, and when pickled, make a perfect complement to a charcuterie plate.  So, I bought all three baskets they had, and brought them home.

Once I had sterilized my pint jars, I estimated the pickling mixture needed, and mixed 2 cups white vinegar, 4 tablespoons pickling salt and 2/3 cups water.  I put a clove of garlic, a fresh bay leaf, and several whole peppercorns into each jar, as liquid heated on the stove.  Next, I packed the jars with the gherkins, as tightly as possible.

As soon as the salt dissolved and the pickling liquid came to a boil, I filled the jars and sealed.  I hadn’t pickled anything in a few months, and forgot how everything floats to the top, making it a tad harder to wipe the tops of the jars clean.  I got the jars sealed and processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.  I had forgotten how easy pickling is, relative to canning other things.

Cornichons!

Hide Your Vegetables, I Can’t Stop Canning! July 4, 2011

When Jesse Griffiths said that canning is addictive at canning class last week at Johnson”s Backyard Garden, my first thought was, “Nah, I’m just canning out of necessity”.  I have too many garden tomatoes, and HAVE TO can them.  Now, 8 days later, I’m canning everything in sight, and have slowed down only because I’ve run out of produce.  When I left the farmer’s market on Saturday with two bags full of tomatoes, my friends just shook their heads.

I had a banner canning day on Saturday, starting with the over abundance of cucumbers and peppers from my garden.  I had also purchased some banana peppers from Milagro Farms, which were so pretty I couldn’t resist.  Apparently, they were initially grown for pickling.

Pickled Produce

 

Next I turned my attention to the tomatillos that were left behind from Mexican Cooking Class.  I cored them, then tossed them into a pan with some water, garlic and onion and started cooking them down.

Reducing the tomatillos

 

Once soft, I added salt to taste and a good amount of lime juice (also left behind) and processed it with the immersion blender, until smoother but slightly chunky.  The end result was a pint and a half pint of salsa verde which will be amazing for cheesy, chicken enchiladas.

Salsa Verde

Next up, in my hours long canning frenzy, I turned to the remaining tomatoes from the Johnson’s Backyard Garden class, some heirlooms from Springdale Farm, a few of my own, and some of the purchased tomatoes from Milagro Farms.

I separated the heirlooms from the hybrids, and cooked them down separately, adding garlic, garden oregano, and salt.  I let this sauce cook down until it reduced to the perfect consistency for pasta sauce.  The coolest thing about this is that once processed and put into the pantry, it is ready to go.  I will be able to make a simple yet delicious dinner, by tossing this sauce with some hot pasta and a little parmesan, and it will take mere minutes.

Pasta sauce

The remaining tomatoes I processed to the consistency of stewed tomatoes that I’ll be able to use for anything.  So the end result of my day of canning is below.  I have become my grandmother.

My Day of Canning

 

 

Memorial Day in an Austin Urban Garden May 29, 2011

I can’t believe the end of May is already here.  I feel so blessed with my harvest of tomatoes already, and there are more to come.  My kitchen window has housed the rotation of tomatoes from daily harvests for the last 5 weeks or so.

Yesterday's window

May 16th window

May 6th window

I have no idea how many tomatoes I’ve harvested this Spring, but it has been a lot.  Everyone who visits gets a bag full; everyone I visit gets a bag full, my freezer is full, and I’m eating them as fast as I can.  I’m in garden tomato heaven, and there are lots more where those came from.

More tomatoes!

The cucumbers have done fairly well, and I’ve harvested two very different ones, a Straight 8 and a long curly one.  Since those were harvested, the plants have taken off and started flowering more.

Cucumber plant

I pickled mine and some from the farmer’s market, yesterday.

Pickles

The peppers have been heavy producers as well, and I’m eating peppers every chance I get.  This morning I picked the biggest of the jalapenos, serranos, padrons and an Anaheim.  The Hinklehatz aren’t turning red just yet, but I have a plant full of them.

This morning's pepper harvest

The watermelon plants took off after I fed them some Buds and Blooms and gave them a good douse of water.  There are tiny watermelons making an appearance.

Watermelon

I still haven’t managed to grow fantastic corn.  It is delicious, but the ears never fill out as much as I’d like.

corn

 

My breakfast gets eaten outside these days, as I pluck nearly ripe tomatoes with blackberry stained fingers.

Superfruit

The citrus are coming right along, too.  Meyer lemons, key limes, and  Satsuma oranges have all set fruit.

Meyer Lemon

I have had a dwarf peach tree in a pot on my driveway for 3 or 4 years.  Each year, it has peaches on it, and each year, they get stolen, by some animal.  This year, my little tree has 18 peaches on it, and remains unmolested by nature.  I’m ecstatic.

Peaches!

I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful garden this year.  Yet, I have no idea why my garden, and everyone else’s that I know, are so very productive and trouble free.  Did the freeze kill the bugs?  Maybe.  But where are the squirrels?  I have no idea, but I’m thankful for it!

Preserving Garden Cucumbers – Pickling July 8, 2010

I was fortunate to have 4 lemon cucumbers ripe at one time, normally it is about 2 at once.  Not having the full range of grocery store spices available to me to use Ruhlman’s pickling recipe, I took them to my friend Christian’s and bartered for half, if he would pickle them.  He had just harvested a couple of very large cucumbers from his garden, and I bought some more at the Triangle Farmer’s Market Wednesday.  Pickling should be done in large batches.

Pickling spice, water, vinegar, salt

First he mixed the pickling spice, vinegar, water and salt.

Fancy mandoline, made slicing a breeze

Packing the jars

The lemon cucumbers might not be the best pickling cucumbers, because they have more seedy pulp area, and are not as firm.  But, we will find out.

Lemon cucumber

Next, we filled the jars with the pickling liquid.  Actually, the “I” in “we” petted the puppy.

Almost pickles

You know how pickles make your mouth water just thinking about them?  That would be me, right about now.  3-4 weeks later, we should have some amazing pickles.

And for the cat lovers:

Cats just seem to love boxes