JENN McKINLAY: Anyone who follows me on the socials knows that this year I decided to lean all the way into gardening trowel first. Usually, I have flower pots and a sunflower patch, containers of tomatoes and peppers, and a seasonal herb garden, but this year, I went a little overboard. We now have two raised beds with sunshades and plans for two more. Mornings are spent in my pajamas, drinking my coffee and talking to my crops.
It has been a bountiful year for zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and shishito peppers, while the eggplant and pole beans quit on me. Now it seems it's the cucumbers time to shine and I am pretty thrilled as I love me a good pickle. Of course, I've never made pickles before so I'm also a tad nervous. This is where anyone who reads this is successful with pickles give me advice in the comments!
Of course while contemplating my future pickles, I went full librarian and had to do some research on facts about pickles because...the more you know. So, here are some little tidbits that I thought I'd share.
- Pickles have been around since ancient times. Some believe the first pickle was created in Mesopotamia in 2400 B.C.E. Others believe it was as early as 2030 B.C.E.
- Ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra claimed pickles made her beautiful (although, there is some pushback on the accuracy of this tidbit).
- When the Philadelphia Eagles thrashed the Dallas Cowboys in the brutal heat of September 2000, the players attributed their win to one thing: guzzling down immense quantities of ice-cold pickle juice.
- The phrase “in a pickle” was first introduced by Shakespeare in his play, The Tempest. The quotes read, “How cam’st thou in this pickle?” and “I have been in such a pickle.”
- Sweet pickles are made by soaking dill pickles in strong Kool-Aid and are very popular in parts of Mississippi.
- You can hear the crunch of a good pickle at 10 paces.
- In Connecticut in order for a pickle to officially be considered a pickle, it must bounce. (I'm from CT and I did not know this).
- The majority of pickle factories in America ferment their pickles in outdoor vats without lids leaving them subject to insects and bird droppings! But there’s a reason. According to food scientists, the sun’s direct rays prevent yeast and molds from growing in the brine. (I don't think I needed to know this).
- Pickling vegetables not only improves their flavor, it can also make them more nutritious and easier to digest. During fermentation, bacteria produce vitamins as they digest vegetable matter.
- The Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American eats 8.5 lbs of pickles a year. (I fear I might be consuming more than my share--no regrets!).
It's bread and butter [sweet] pickles for me . . . . I haven't made pickles in years, but my grandmother gave me her bead-and-butter pickle recipe, and told me to always use small, firm cucumbers . . . .
ReplyDeleteI like dill pickles with garlic. It's hard to find crunchy jarred pickles!
ReplyDeleteI am NOT a fan of sweet pickles.
I don't get enough sun to grow cucumbers on my balcony garden. I tried making pickles once or twice by buying kirby cucumbers from the local FM.
But I have pickled radishes and onions each year.
Thanks for the facts, and good luck with the garden! We're having a hungry-bunny and -woodchuck season, so I hope my flourishing cukes survive.
ReplyDeleteI love a good sour or dill pickle, but absolutely detest sweet pickles. Back when I farmed, I made lots of my own pickles, cucumber and dilly bean, with my own dill.
My former mother-in-law had THE recipe, and all the d-i-ls (Jean had five sons) were nearly required to make pickles every year. For a big jar, it included a clove or two of garlic, a small hot pepper, and loads of dill. SO good.
My absolute favorite sandwich sliced pickle is the hot/sweet kind. But I have not seen a recipe yet.
DeleteBread and butter pickles are our specialty too! I bet I could make sweet pickle lovers out of all of you with this recipe:). For a while, I made hot okra pickles too, but we don't get enough now to spare.
ReplyDeleteI admire your energy Jenn--gardening and then all those words too!! Don't tell John that doing both at once is possible...
Do you have a recipe you can post Lucy? Sounds super!!
DeleteI like bread and butter pickles
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your garden, Jenn! I love sour and dill pickles, but I will always pick out sliced sweet ones to leave at the side of my plate.
ReplyDeletePickling in vinegar was of course originally a method of food preservation. In colonial times a comfortably off family heading into winter had in their cellar a barrel of salt beef (beef pieces in brine) and/or salt pork, with a variety of pickled items, not just cucumbers, but in coastal towns, pickled oysters and pickled clams. (Selden)
I like most pickles, especially dill and sweet. I've never tried to make them, though. Your garden sounds like it's doing well.
ReplyDeleteCount me: LOVES PICKLES! And Lucy's bread and butter pickles are fabulous. When we lived in Manhattan we'd go to the lower east side and buy from a guy who purveyed his pickles from a barrel on a corner. They were amazing pickles that rarely made it home.
ReplyDeleteI have a sweet tooth, so I love watermelon pickles. You don't see this offered in many supermarkets any more. After my time in Japan, I really got into Japanese pickles. It seemed like they could and did pickle almost every plant, including seaweed. Anyone who loves sushi, will appreciate my love of "gari" the very thinly sliced ginger pickled in sweet vinegar. For a long time, the condiment was also dyed a pink or red color. Lately I am seeing pale yellow nestled next to the wasabi.
ReplyDeleteIs sauerkraut a pickle? If so I would merrily eat it for breakfast. Good luck with the crop Jen, and watch out for free floating wild yeast. Not what you want in the bath.
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DeleteCORALEE: I miss eating tsukemono (Japanese pickles)! I can find takuan (yellow pickled radish) in most Asian grocery stores but NOT the type of tsukemono i grew up with... linking back to Jenn's cucumber pickles.
DeleteKyurizuke are Japanese cucumbers are brined in a mix of soy sauce, salt, and sugar for one to two weeks until they have shrunk considerably and have a firm crunch. It came in packagesimported from Japan but I have not found them in Ottawa or online.
I miss eating them soooo much!
I also love eating sauerkraut.
I know they are fermented veggies which means there's healthy bacteria in addition to the brine. So is sauerkraut also a pickle? Don't know.
I love both sweet and dill pickles (the dill with a touch of garlic - yum). My mom used to call me Pickle Puss when I was a kid because I loved them so much.
ReplyDeleteI have not attempted to make pickles but I have picked onions. I love your pictures of your veggies as they grow. Good luck with the pickle experiment! — Pat S
Beet Pickles, Bread & Butter, Piccalilli, my mother’s mustard pickles, and the Cape Breton pickle Chow Chow – made with green tomatoes and a favourite on most everything but especially fish cakes. I don’t make a good dill pickle, so gave that up – some years they were good, but most years not. My neighbour always served her dill pickles with maple syrup on a stick in the spring, which is surprisingly delicious. Sometimes I cook fish just so I can have pickled beets beside it. Not a pickle but my hot pepper jelly – can’t keep it on my shelf!
ReplyDeleteJenn ~ Our fridge is never without a jar of pickles (either kosher dill or bread and butter) and sweet pickle relish. I love gherkins as well...the baby cukes. I always buy the jarred pickles in the refrigerated section of the supermarket because they have a crunch to them unlike the shelf pickles which are limp and limp and soggy. That's as far as my pickle experience goes as we don't harvest our own pickles here at home so I"m sorry, Jenn, I can't help you with a good pickle recipe. Good luck with your planned pickle harvest this year; I have no doubt a homemade pickle is far superior to the ones we buy in the grocery stores! P.S. The above photo of the floating pickles in the wooden barrel brings back pleasant memories of when I was a pre-teen girl and my best friend and I would head to the supermarket daily during summer vacation to each select a gigantic dill pickle from the pickle barrel in the deli section of the store. A pair of tongs hung off the side of the barrel and we would lift up the plexiglass lid (split in two) to each choose a jumbo size whole dill pickle. I think the pickle bags were made of wax paper but I can't be sure about that fact. What I do remember was the walk home with my best friend and the both of us joyfully eating our pickles along the way. I can still hear the crunch, crunch, crunch of each scrumptious juicy bite of those pickles. By the time we reached home both of those pickles had been consumed. :-) Such a lovely, delicious childhood memory!
ReplyDeleteYour garden sounds amazing! You must work early in the mornings. I can't abide working in the heat, and our heat in Oregon has been pretty pleasant so far.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager, I once ate dill pickles with peppermint ice cream. I think I was just trying to goad my parents, but it was surprisingly good. The only (short-lived) craving I had during pregnancy was for pickles. I remember walking up the pickle aisle in the store and salivating. I do like pickles of all kinds. I'm not a mustard lover, so I will put pickle relish on my hotdog instead. I've never made pickles though.
When I was growing up, my grandparents still had a small general store. Most days, my father worked there behind the meat counter. If my mother wasn't feeling well, (she was ill with rheumatoid arthritis) she would send me to the store to eat lunch with my father. He knew exactly how I liked my sandwiches and he really catered to his little girl. My grandmother had a pickle barrel in that tiny back room and I'd get to choose my own perfectly green dill pickle from that barrel. Good memories!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely memory, Judy (except for the ill mother ).
DeleteJenn, don't be afraid of pickling those cukes! I don't have a recipe, but it's a fairly simple process. Plus, there are tons of recipes out there for instant pickling of almost anything--a rabbit hole just waiting for you to slide down! I love pickles--my mom did dills and sweet pickles, plus made her own sauerkraut. There's always sweet relish in the fridge, for hot dogs and for making tartar sauce for fish. And who can eat an egg or chicken salad sandwich without a crunchy pickle on the side??
ReplyDeleteWe are currently visiting my oldest daughter in Traverse City, who thoroughly enjoyed hearing your pickle facts, Jenn. She is the queen of all sour flavors, along with horseradish, and her son Zak loves them, too. We keep a small bottle of pickleback vodka for her occasional yens when she visits. (I haven't been able to bring myself to try it.) I can take or leave pickles, but dill slices are a must on sandwiches, and sweet relish and mustard go with hot dogs.
ReplyDeleteIn my childhood we ate a lot of sauerkraut, since my dad was half German, but I just don't think of buying it. Kimchi is another fermented food that has gotten really popular.
Margo, one summer my best friend and I made about a gallon of Chow Chow relish from my bumper crop of green tomatoes. It is so good on fish, especially salmon. That was my only pickling experience, and a LOT more work than just making pickles. My friend now has Alzheimers, and this is giving me an idea of making a batch for her this summer.
I had to look up pickleback vodka. Apparently you must use it in a bloody Mary! I have a son who would LOVE it. Hmm, I hope I can remember that until Christmas. He used to drink pickle juice in high school, and later mastered sauerkraut and fermenting everything.
DeleteOh Jenn, your mornings in your garden sound amazing! I am not much of a pickle fan. I do love pickled carrots and the pickled ginger and wasabi with sushi.
ReplyDeleteI love pickles--especially half-sours. SO fresh and clean! And now I am thinking about the bounce requirement. Do they test that?
ReplyDeleteCannot wait to hear your adventures!
I’m a sweet pickle girl. I love the baby gherkins, bread and butter pickles, and sweet relish for a hot dog. I do not eat 8.5 pounds of them per year. I buy them for the relish tray at Thanksgiving and have the same small jar for months.
ReplyDeleteMy husband likes dill pickles. He ate them by the jarful when he was going thru chemo for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1990. He ate way more than his 8.5 pounds of them that year! That craving is definitely a thing as a friend who had ovarian cancer was told by her medical team to expect to crave pickles she didn’t believe them until it happened and I verified from our experience. It is something about the metallic taste you get in your moth from the chemo.
Here’s a link to a clip of the Andy Griffith episode called The Pickle Story.. https://youtu.be/dfhClelZbCU?si=AU0XnMA1u9aRToNc
Even though Aunt Bea was a great cook, she could not make a good pickle.
I love dill pickles over sweet ones. Great post Jenn. So interesting. I can picture you in the early morning, coffee in hand, in your garden!
ReplyDeleteOh you've brought back some memories this morning! My Dad loved making all kinds of pickles with his garden produce. He would grow special pickling cucumbers that were different (more nubby) than the salad cucumbers. Sometimes he made salt pickles in a big 5-gallon crock that was also used for sauerkraut, other times he'd do regular garlic-dill pickles or sweet pickles in mason jars. Zucchini pickles and pickled green beans are also very good. Sadly, I didn't inherit the gardening or pickling genes, but fortunately my sister keeps us supplied with pickles made from her garden.
ReplyDeleteThis recipe looks straight forward and easy enough.
ReplyDeleteBest Homemade Pickles Recipe - How to Make Homemade Pickles https://share.google/18ulc3fb4YYjNC7W7
Sadly for some, pickleball has nothing to do with pickles. There is some dispute over where the name came from from. Here is a little history for you.
ReplyDeletehttps://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game/#:~:text=In%20other%20words%2C%20the%20Pritchard,the%20local%20pickle%20boat%20races.