This summer was our first time pickling. I was a little overwhelmed at first, even though it seems pretty basic. The easiest time to pickle was when the girls were in bed for the night… and all I wanted to do when they were in bed was lay very, very still on the couch and stare off into space. Staring off into space actually sounded kind of taxing, so you can imagine how daunting it would seem to have to slice, assemble spices, measure things, figure out ratios… and that’s all after cleaning off the kitchen counters! But, Kyle was motivated enough for the two of us. So, we began our adventures in pickling (some of us more enthusiastic than others).
When we are pickling the whole house fills with a sharp, almost astringent, vinegar smell that up until this summer would have bothered me. My aversion to vinegar is something I’ve worked hard to overcome, the aversion itself stems from a long ago game of Truth or Dare during which my sister dared me to drink vinegar into which she had emptied half of the spice cabinet. But in the past years I’ve finally begun to enjoy delicacies like Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips and pickled products. There’s something wonderful about pickling things yourself… it’s different from most of the type of cooking I do and the process is incredibly fun! Plus the result, rows of beautifully colored pickled veggies, is very rewarding.
We are months away from those hot midsummer days when Kyle somehow convinced me to participate in our first pickling projects and I have found myself wanting to pickle something. The best things we made so far include Dilly Beans, Chile Dilly Beans, Bread and Butter Pickles, Pickled Beets, and my favorite of the bunch, Spiced Pickled Carrots! It’s the best when everything grows in your own garden but this time of year our garden looks very, very bare… bare except for the kale that is frozen solid at the far end of the middle bed. So a couple weekends ago Kyle went to the store and bought all of the ingredients to make a big, huge batch of Spiced Pickled Carrots. I peeled and chopped while he made the brine and measured the pickling spice, garlic and chiles into the pint jars. We spent a whole Sunday morning pickling carrots and now that that’s done I can’t wait to do more beets! I have a feeling next year our entire garden is going to be heading for jars!
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The Spiced Pickled Carrot recipe we use is from this book: The Pickled Pantry! Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll give you the whole list of everything we purchased to get started! It’s surprisingly inexpensive!
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