Canning Season is Today

[Joy Beeson]

We didn't grow cucumbers this year, so all I've got to put up is one
batch of giant-garlic giardiniera.

I'm supposed to slice the vegetables the night before, leave them in
salt water all night, and pickle them in the morning. But the last
three days I've been too fuzzy in the evening to slice vegetables --
took me over an hour this morning, and I ended up having lunch instead
of breakfast.

So I decided to slice them this morning, let them sit all day, and
pickle them in the evening. (I could have sliced them last night if I
were making the pickles Mom's way, not putting in anything but
cucumbers and onions.)

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I used the recipe at:

http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/COOKBOOK/PICKLES.HTM

but reduced the pickles and onions to seasoning. Cut up two small
cukes, two very small onions, and assorted veggies to the tune of
about a quart. I began with one entire ginger root, which I suspect
that I will regret. I got bored slicing giant garlic even though it
went faster after I realized that my knife works better than my
mandoline. Giant-garlic cloves tend to shatter when pushed against a
blade.

But though very large for garlic, there are a *lot* of giant-garlic
cloves in a pound.

So I pieced it out with two stalks of celery (knife cut) and the neck
half of a yellow squash (mandoline). Still a tad short of two full
quarts. I laid out five standard-mouht pint jars, and put three (all
that will fit into my five-quart dutch oven) in hot water. I like
wide-mouth half pints for serving pickles, but can transfer some of
the pickles into serving dishes when I open each pint.

Now the kitchen is set up, half-gallon tea strainer bridged across the
sink, jars and lids in hot water, a kettle ready put water, vinegar
(white; no use pouring cider vinegar down the sink) and alum in,
saucepan of vinegar and spices ready to heat while the alum is
draining. I left out the turmeric and curry powder, and added black
peppercorns, calcium chloride, and fresh thyme, oregano, and marjoram.
With two red jalapeños among the veggies, the cayenne seemed
redundant.

Also using three cups of vinegar (apple cider) instead of one and a
half each of vinegar and sugar.

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Oops. Did you see "rings" in that list? Well, it didn't take long to
find a half-gallown wide-mouth jar of them and dump out the stuff on
top.

I got three pints, though the third is rather loosely packed.

DH looked at the counter and said "You made a few pickles and got all
this?" I replied "and I've already washed some of it and put it away.

Well, two dutch ovens and a saucepan make a rather dramatic clutter
all by themselves.

I don't think he saw the well over half a gallon, pressed down, of
dirt and debris from slicing vegetables. The two onions were exactly
as pulled. I had cut the stems off the giant garlic, but the roots
and wrappers remained.

Wikipedia says that if I plant the seed-like cloves, I will get large
single cloves the first year. I do have a *lot* of those "seeds".

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/