Pickled

I am growing five varieties of cucumbers this year. Two in the food bank plots and three in my community garden plots. Then I mix and match. Boothby's Blonde are best eaten fresh. The skin is thin and they make a good snack while weeding, watering or harvesting. Lemon cucumbers, too. I seeded Boothby's and Lemon within a day or so of each other the first week of June. I already have harvested many Boothby's. I'm still waiting for a ripe Lemon.

I tried pickling cucumbers for the first time this year. In the past, I have pickled Boothby's and Carolina. Both have large seed cavities, which turns them to gel in a pickling jar. The pickling cucumbers I am growing this year are better, but several have grown too large, too quick, so they were food banked.

One quart of pickles and another one in the making.

I don't have a recipe for pickles, or anything else I preserve. The main thing is to use a lot less vinegar than what is suggested in most recipes. I dilute apple vinegar with 50 percent water. Add a little sea salt and onion powder, a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a teaspoon or so of dried dill. Okay, maybe that is a recipe, but I don't measure anything, so it turns out differently every time.

Sometimes I boil the water/vinegar before adding it to the cucumbers. It doesn't really matter because I store all of my preserves in the refrigerator. I reuse canning lids, so I can't trust dry storage for longevity. I just opened a jar of pickled peppers that has been in the refrigerator since September 2011. As of this writing, I have not suffered food poisoning. 

The pickled peppers are a variety called Garden Salsa, a long, thin, semi-hot pepper. I am not a fan of scorching-hot peppers, and this variety is just right on the Scoville scale for my taste. I would say it is close to jalapeno heat, but without the funky texture of thick-walled jalapenos. I have not been able to find Garden Salsa pepper seed via the Internet or other seed sources. I have purchased this variety as plant starts from the same roadside stand for the past three years. I have two Garden Salsa plants growing at the garden site that were planted July 18. I know that sounds late to be planting warm season crops. But peppers plants are just now starting to show some vigor.