Homegrown Homemade Pickles

With an ever growing pile of cucumbers from the garden taking up precious real estate on my cutting board, I decided to spend a few hours last Sunday "putting them up."  I searched the internet for simple pickling recipes and decided to try no fewer than four!

To start things off, the cucumbers get sliced quickly and evenly thanks to my mandoline slicer.

One of the first two recipes: Spicy Pickled Cucumbers.  Crushed red pepper and mint leaves give these an Asian flavor. I can't wait to eat them with ramen or pho.

I only made a total of five jars with my four recipes, keeping each batch pretty small.  The second recipe for 'Quick Garlic Pickles' can be found here.

After the cucumbers and a break to grab more vinegar, I got started on the carrots (also from the garden).  Most of them looked pretty nice after a good scrub.

But there were a few odd ones in the bunch.

Regardless of initial aesthetics, they all looked about the same, peeled and ready to chop.

I didn't have as many carrots as cucumbers, but I still made two varieties: one spicy with onions and jalapenos, and the other sweeter with hints of maple and ginger.

The jars went into the fridge, I washed a bunch of dishes and went to read a book outside to escape the vinegar smell permeating my house.

Later, at dinner time, the pickles emerged from the fridge for a taste test.

The "taco stand" carrots with jalapenos and the spicy cucumbers with mint were really spicy, and thankfully have become a little milder the over the past few days.  The quick garlic pickles are tasty, and the most versatile--I've been putting them on the sandwiches I've packed for lunch this week.  The ginger maple carrots are also very good, but you don't have to take my word for it.  The flavor is similar to the ones my housemate Michelle won "Best in Show" for at the Albemarle County Fair!

The garden isn't looking quite as nice as it did a month ago, so I am glad to have spent the time this past weekend making the most of its produce.  I have been thinking about planting some fall crops, but there are a few other projects around the house and some job applying I need to do first.