urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2021-10-29 09:04 am

Fall Pickles

Put up roughly 10kg of turnips into pickles: matchsticked them, put in a couple sliced beets for colour, filled the container maybe 1/6 full of 7% vinegar, and then added water to cover and salt at 3% of total weight including veg and vinegar (it's a bit more complicated than that, I boiled the brine and poured it over warm, and some calculations needed to be made on that brine).

I also did carrot/jalapeno/garlic pickles (mostly carrots), about 9kg, with a 6% brine poured over boiling (not total veg + water weight, just 6% brine). I'm using vacsealed bags of water for air exclusion in the gallon jars, then there's an airlock on one and the waterlock fermentation crock as well.

I also canned some potatoes but haven't yet opened a can to test; I put in 3/4 tsp of Old Bay seasoning per liter jar.

The carnitas I made has been seeing a bunch of use. That recipe is a keeper even though I find the cumin smell offputting when I open the jar. When fried up and put into a burrito it's really good.
urbandryad: image of a city growing out of the branches of a tree (Default)
2020-09-01 08:24 am

Fall hits hard

Last night I lit the woodstove and harvested the turnips because the piglets had got into the garden.

This morning: turnip pickles. Matchstick-sliced turnips with a couple beets in slices 3.3kg. Water 3L. Vinegar 2L. Salt 3%. In the fermenting crock for 7 days (this is the plan), then into jars and either pasteurize or water bath.

I'm also boiling down 40lbs of tomatoes into sauce with a couple jalapenos thrown in, and I'll be setting another jar of jalapenos to ferment and making apple sauce (the apple sauce I'm going to experiment with a chinois since the apples are small and I don't like peeling/coring).

These are boring apples so I'm going to try adding grapes or plums to some of the apple sauce to flavour it.

Edit to add: put some celery, carrot, bay leaf, basil, oregano, and smoked paprika in the tomatoes to make a tomato sauce. Currently pressure-canning that.