Tuesday 25 August 2015

Pickle all the things!

I was in my garden yesterday looking through my radishes to see if they were ready.  My husband had chosen the radishes because they were a larger variety.  I've never seen radish plants like this before.  The stalks are 3 feet high right now and because I didn't thin them (noted for next year, with the carrots too) and because I planted an entire 40 foot row of them, I have many, many radishes.  I picked about 10 yesterday and their sizes ranged from the size of my big toe to the size of a small lemon.  The big toe size were very woody and not ready yet.  My plan with all these radishes is to of course pickle them.  I'm going to try some with red onion and peppercorns and others with garlic and red pepper flakes.  These days I'm also pickling beets, green beans and carrots.  I change it up each time adding something a little different to try out different tastes.  I'm already looking forward to eating them in the winter.  I also have those 16 or so tomato plants that are doing very well despite my overgrown, weedy garden.  I will roast those with garlic and basil, take off the skins and then blend with a bit of olive oil and also preserve them.  The cucumbers again did not do well in my garden.  I will try them in the upper garden next year because I would love to make actual cucumber pickles.  I made a big crock of baked beans this week thinking I could preserve them as well but I need a pressure cooker to do that, so I will freeze those to add to chili.  Oh what a mess my kitchen has been.  I'm trying to pack in as much as I can into these dwindling daylight hours including a 3km walk with the dog everyday.  I am working from home a bit more over the next couple of weeks so all this work is fitting in just fine with my schedule and I'm so thankful for a job that is flexible enough to allow a life outside of work.  My next little project is to figure out how to preserve kale.  Don't laugh!  It seems like such a waste to have so much in the summer but none in the winter.  Any ideas?  I'm all ears. 

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