Pickling the Harvest: Beets, and Bread and Butter Pickle Chips

Harvest time is here! There are cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, onions, potatoes, garlic, eggplant and more that are everywhere!

We bought some beautiful farm-fresh blackberries at a fruit stand the other day, but they gotten eaten before we even got home, so no pictures. They were so individual - some were so perfectly sweet, some were just a hint of sweet. Some were so big and juicy that you could pick the little pods (called drupelets) apart with your tongue before biting into them. My purple stained fingers were licked clean after that.

We've also gotten a lot of string beans from my CSA farm share this year, and I'm anticipating more beans for at least a few weeks before we get into apple and plum season. Not wanting all this bounty to go to waste, I tried my hand at canning for the first time.

The easiest of all the types of canning is pickling. Then, you are able to can fruits and jellies with hot bath canning. If you canning includes any meat, vegetables or beans, you should be using a pressure canner so that all the bacteria can be removed when the batch reaches 240 degrees. You simply need a large stockpot (one large enough that you can cover your jars with 1-2 inches of water), a rack to hold the jars inside the pot, some tongs to help remove the jars, and some clean jars, lids, and rings.

I got some basic, introductory canning information from Pickyourown.org, where you can even find a listing of local pick-your-own farms. I might just have to do that so we can have a Saturday full of blueberry bliss in our next few week. According to the site, the blackberries are out right now. Information about canning safely is available at the National Center for Home Food Preservation website.

I don't have all the equipment either. So the question was pretty simple. Pickling? Yes please!

I had a fresh local bag of beets that needed to be used, and they were so beautiful and fresh. Pickled beets was first on the docket then. Pickled beets are a little sweet, mingled with some white onions and cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. They easily canned into some half-pint jars, so we don't have to eat them in extremely large quantities.

Next was bread and butter pickle chips. I have a pickle cutter that I picked up from Pampered Chef (via the thrift store), so now my pickle chips have that perfect wavy texture on the outside. It helps them to pick up that spicy sweet brine, and gives them some visual interest. After some rolling boil in the stockpot, and some simmering of the pickling liquid, I ended up with several quarts of fresh bread and butter pickle chips, made with local cucumbers.

 

My grandparents are canning extraordinaires, even now into their 80s. They like to preserve apricot nectar, apricots in syrup, cherries in syrup, pears in syrup, apple sauce, pear sauce, and other items - all from their own trees. It's just incredible to visit their "fruit room" (a cool, cellar room in the basement with shelves and shelves of carefully canned produce). Maybe someday I'll have the skills to can like they do. Until then, I'm going to keep on pickling!