Method: Pickling Update!

I have tasted my pickles. And they are good. Damn good. And I urge each and everyone of you to pickle some of summer's bounty. Truly incredible.

To recap, I pickled some of our CSA veggies: green beans, zucchini, cucumbers and red cabbage.

The zucchini was actually a ridged variety that I thought would make beautiful star-like pickle slices. The upside of this particular variety is that it not only looks pretty, it holds its firm texture well in pickling. Absolutely lovely to look at and snack on. Perfect for setting out with cheeses, olive and nuts for summer and fall entertaining. Or even as a hostess gift!

The red cabbage turns a lovely shade of pink when pickled, and I've been adding it to salads and sauteed veggies for bright color and an extra punch of flavor.

The pickling cucumbers turned out...just like dill pickles! Not as ooooh-aaaah inducing as the other veggies, but nice to know I can make a pretty darn good dill pickle on my own.

By far, our family favorite is the green beans. My son almost ate the whole jar himself! I had added a pierced jalapeno for a little heat, and it was just right. If the jar had made it past a week (like say a couple of months) the heat would have been more intense. Which also would be nice, but not necessarily a 3 year old's dream pickle.

So, needless to say I am a home pickling convert. I can't wait to do another batch. Perhaps we will have more restraint now and allow them to carry us into fall. Or not.

In case you missed the previous pickling post, here is the brine recipe I used as recommended by some fellow CSAers!

Cooking Away My CSA Challenge

I've been invited to participate with food bloggers across the country in a challenge for the most creative recipes using the produce you receive in your CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.
Cooking Away My CSA should be a fun way to utilize this year's produce!

This is our second year with Driftless Organics, and our first box arrived last week! I was super impressed with the haul this time, because last year the crops were WAY down due to flooding in the upper Mid-West.

One of the challenges with a CSA is using all of your lovely vegetables + fruit without having them go to waste. We've solved a bit of this dilemma by sharing our weekly box with another family. It works out really well!

This week's box included:

kohlrabi
blue potatoes
arugula
spinach
green leaf lettuce
rosemary
green onions
green garlic

I'm working on a few new recipes, and I'm excited to share them with you! I'll have some posted on Friday. Happy Summer!