Pickling Fruits and Vegetables

Yes, you read the title correctly. Not only can you pickle vegetables, you can pickle all kinds of fruits. And it’s easy. Pickling involves immersing a fruit or vegetable in a mixture of vinegar, salt, and spices and letting it all ferment. Pickles are low in fat and calories and, depending on what you’ve pickled, have lots of good vitamins like K, C and potassium. It’s easy to grow almost everything you need to pickle and the rest of the ingredients are inexpensive. Here’s what to grow in your pickle garden: For spice mix: Garlic Mustard Celery Dill Hot peppers Oregano For pickling: Beans Beets Cucumbers Lemons Okra Peaches Peppers Grapes Watermelon rinds Tomatoes From the grocery: Black peppercorns Cider vinegar Salt Canning jars The Pickling Process Choose only ripest, freshest fruits and vegetables to pickle. Make sure all of your spice plants and your pickle subjects are free from soft spots and bruises. Sterilize your pickle jars in the dishwasher or by boiling them for a few minutes on the stove. While the jars cool, slice the fruit or vegetable in pieces small enough to fit in your pickling jars. Add smashed garlic cloves, a pinch of red pepper and either mustard seed, celery seed, or black peppercorns to the bottom of the jar. Insert the sliced fruit or vegetables so they are loosely packed. Fill the jars with a brine solution of half water, half cider vinegar and salt (to taste) The longer the pickles get to soak and ferment, the tastier they’ll be! Pickling Lemons Since we have a Meyer lemon tree in our greenhouse that churns out more lemons than we can every possibly use, we love to make pickled lemons. They’re unexpected, tasty (especially in Moroccan recipes) and look so pretty in jars on the shelf. Here’s how to do it: Ingredients 8 Meyer lemons, scrubbed ½ cup kosher salt Sterilized quart canning jar Directions Put 2 Tbsp of salt in the bottom of a sterilized jar Cut ¼ inch off the top and bottom of the lemons then quarter them Sprinkle salt on the inside and outsides of the lemon quarters: be generous Pack the lemons in the jar. Go ahead and squish them so the juice comes out. Fill the rest of the jar with enough fresh squeezed lemon juice so it covers all the lemons. Add 2 Tbsp of salt on the top Seal the jar and let it rest at room temperature for two days. Give the jar a gentle agitation occasionally. After two days, store the jar in the refrigerator for at least 3 weeks, giving it a gentle agitation occasionally. Store up to six months. You can experiment with this recipe and add all kinds of spices. Try coriander, bay leaf and oregano to begin. Don’t know how to use your jar of pickled lemons? Here are five great ideas from the wonderful food blog, The Kitchn!