all pickles, all the time!

[snugglekitty]

(I'm starnting to need a pickle icon, huh? I'll get there. For now, here's some cheese! Cheese is fermented!)

So. My kombucha batch is... not done. I can see the stuff growing, and it looks right, which is good. And it's starting to smell like kombucha, which is also very good. But it still tastes sweet. I think it just needs more time. Also, my store-bought kombucha does not come with terribly secure lids. I have discovered this to my woe, twice now. Hopefully the lesson will stick this time.

Last night I took out the batch of beets and onions with curry and juniper. It came out very well, although admittedly they needed to be rinsed and strained. I don't love the level of sourness so I'm probably not going to try to use that brine for another project. Apparently curry makes things ferment more slowly, which makes sense when you think about it, but didn't occur to me when I started the project. The pickles in question are very tasty.

I'm down to the bottom of the jar of pickles that mrpet made first - mixed veggies - so I started another one, with stuff we got from the farmshare and using about half of the remaining brine from that first delicious batch. Chard and kale! Should be interesting. I cooked them a bit first, as the Intarweb suggested. I also threw in other veggies that happened to be lying around - red pepper, scallions, broccoli. We'll see how it turns out. I'm not that into cooking greens in the summer, so it's nice to have another use for them. I bet they'll be great in salad.

Comments

[gothtique.livejournal.com]

I am hoping to get some canning in this year...
I don't usually grow cucumbers, but expect we will get them in the farm share.
... planning ahead.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

It occurred to me this year that pickle-making could be a great way to deal with that time in the farmshare where you are just overwhelmed by the quantity of the vegetables. :) I think it's going to be great!

So far I haven't done any canned pickles, only the countertop kind. I'm a little scared about trying to sterilize jars and stuff like that. They still stay good in the fridge for quite a while though, even without canning.

[gothtique.livejournal.com]

If you can boil water, you can can!
Seriously...
Don't be intimidated... especially with pickles... all that acid.
Nothing bad is gonna happen!

I worry more about the low acid foods... but pickles?

These days, the canning jars are few and far between. You gotta grab them up when you see them. You find them in strange places... like home depot... and only seasonally.

[dakotakym.livejournal.com]

Howdy, I surfed in while reading a mutual friend's friendslist, and the pickling & kombucha brewing caught my eye. I wanted to say that if you want any fermented tea or extra kombucha babies, I always have lots to spare (I love the stuff & have about 10 or so going at the moment).

I'd love to chat with you about crock pickles sometime, as well.. I've made sauerkraut quite regularly, but never cukes or anything else (though I've used the brine & hot water bath canning method often).

Yay for fermentation fun!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I would LOVE to get some fermented tea and/or kombucha babies. I started my first batch using commercial stuff but it is taking forever. I think I need something stronger! Also the commercial stuff is horribly expensive.

I'm in the Boston area, are you local? I could swap some of the pickles I've been making (green beans with cukes and onions, maybe?) or energywork. Or veggies from our farmshare - mostly greens right now.

Sure! I'd enjoy chatting about crock pickles too. ladyanemone at gmail dot com.

Yay fermenting!

[dakotakym.livejournal.com]

I work in Davis Sq. a few days a week. I'll email you privately with more details & to make a more concrete plan for meeting up.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'll look forward to it!

[jenaflynn.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. Pickled Broccoli? I'm going to have to certainly give those a try, once they get ready. :)

[starphire.livejournal.com]

You can...buy...kombucha? I had no idea.
Seems like half the people I know are culturing it, most from a mother that's descended from Russian gypsies or somesuch.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can buy it! They have it at Cambridge Naturals and Whole Foods. It's cheaper at the latter. I haven't tried other places yet.