Tag Archives: Crock Pickles

Seasonal Foods: Beet Pickled Eggs

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Julienne the sliced beets for a garnish with the pickled eggs. Reusing pickle juice is a great way to save money and reduce waste.

To make this recipe you can use organic cider vinegar or reuse some sour pickle juice. This is a great way to reuse sour pickle juice that would normally get discarded in most households. Here’s my recipe for Crock Pickles.

To ensure that the boiled eggs are easy to peel, use eggs that are at least a week old. Two week old eggs are even better. If the eggs are too fresh, it will be difficult to peel the eggs without damaging the surface. If the eggs do not peel easily, just make egg salad instead.

2 medium organic beets, peeled, cooked and sliced
24 pastured eggs, boiled and peeled
1tsp organic dill weed (optional)
3-4c organic cider vinegar or sour pickle juice
Peel the beets and slice in half. In a sauce pan, simmer the beets for 10 minute or until just tender. Drain and let cool. When the beets are cool, thinly slice the beets. Add the beets to the bottom of a 2L mason jar.

In a large sauce pan bring 24 eggs to boil in filtered water. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and pour off the boiling water. Set the sauce pan into the sink and cover the eggs with cold water. Let the eggs cool before peeling. After peeling the eggs, rinse with clean water.

Top the beets with the peeled eggs. Add as much cider vinegar or sour pickle juice as needed to completely cover all the eggs. Refrigerate the eggs for at least one week before consuming. The pickled eggs will keep in the fridge for months.

Jarring Crock Pickles and Making Sweet Pickles: Photo Essay

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The large crock is where I pickle cucumbers. I remove the pickles from the crock and tightly pack into 2L jars.

The cucumber plants are at their peak production now. Up to this week, we have eaten all the crock pickles. Now, there are just too many pickles to eat. Here is my original recipe for Harvest Bounty and Pickling: Crock Pickles. If you are looking for an even easier recipe, try the recipe below.

After about a week in the pickling juice, I remove the pickles and repack them into 2L mason jars. I add a few grape, raspberry, current, gooseberry or horseradish leaves ? reported to keep pickles crunchy ? to the jars and pour the pickling juice over top of the pickles. I top with a plastic mason lid and move the jars to the root cellar or any cool place. If I don’t have any plastic mason lids I use plastic wrap and then canning jar lids.

Do remember these pickles are not canned and will not last as long as canned foods. Make sure the pickling juice is completely covering the pickles. Consume the pickles in 4-6 months and store in a very cool place.

If you are trying to save money, spend some time thinking about how many liters of pickles your family normally consumes over the winter. If you have no idea of your family’s normal consumption, just decide on having one liter of pickles per week. During the winter, consume the pickles until they are gone. You will have an idea of your family’s consumption by next season and can adjust your numbers. In this way, you will save money while feeding your family the best quality food. Don’t worry about running out. Running out adds to everyone’s enjoyment and anticipation of the first pickles of the year.

Do not discard the pickling juice. The pickling juice can be used for making salad dressing. The pickling juice also has salt and sweetener added so adjust your recipe with these additives in mind. This is my standard Whole Seed Mustard Dressing. By reusing this “waste product” you will save money and reduce your waste stream.

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After tightly packing the jars, fill the jars with pickling juice and completely cover the pickles. Put the very large pickles aside for later use. Save any extra pickling juice and use for the salad dressing. Don’t waste anything!

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Add grape, raspberry, current, gooseberry, or horseradish leaves to the jar. These leaves are reported to help keep pickles crunchy. It’s easier to add the leaves to the bottom of the jar.

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Make a new batch of pickling juice and add the new cucumbers to crock.

Simple Crock Pickles
1gal organic cider vinegar
1c course sea salt
1/2c-1c local honey
1c organic whole yellow mustard seeds
1/4c organic dried dill weed
lots of garden pickling cucumbers

Warm up about 1c of cider vinegar to dissolve the honey. Pour into the bottom of the crock and mix in the mustard seeds, dill weed and the remainder of the cider vinegar. Add the cucumbers and weigh down the cucumbers with a non-reactive plate and stone. The pickles are ready within a few days.

You can eat the pickles right out of the crock or pack the pickles into jars for storage. You can add more cucumbers to the pickling solution. You will know the solution is getting too diluted because the cucumbers will not taste “pickled”. At this point, make up another batch of pickling solution with the same ratio of vinegar, salt and honey as above.

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Top the mason jar with a plastic lid. Store in a cool, dark place.

Homemade Sweet Pickles
4-6 large pickles, sliced
1-2 sweet local onions, sliced into rings
1/4-1/2c local honey, adjust for taste
1/2tsp organic turmeric
pickling juice to cover

Warm up 1c of pickling juice to help dissolve the honey. Add the turmeric and pour into the 2L mason jar. Slice up the pickles and onions and pack tightly into the 2L mason jar. Add enough pickling juice to cover the pickles and carefully invert the mason jar a few times to mix the juice. Let the pickles sit overnight in the fridge. The pickles and onions will take on the yellow color of the turmeric.

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Take the very large pickles and slice evenly. Slice whole rounds of sweet onions and pack both tightly into a 2L mason jar.

I consider Homemade Sweet Pickles a seasonal food. They are best made with new sweet onions that are coming out of gardens at this time of year. Sweet pickles are so delicious that they don’t last very long. My family looks forward to late summer barbecues and sweet pickles. Again, save the pickle juice for making more sweet pickles or use as the vinegar part of a sweeter summer salad dressing.

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These sweet pickles are delicious as a snack or as a relish on paleo burgers.

Harvest Bounty and Pickling: Crock Hot Peppers

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After the success with the Crock Pickles, I decided to try pickling banana peppers. Note the slit in the end of the peppers to let the pickling solution inside the peppers.

Crock Hot Peppers
After liking the Crock Pickles so much I got some banana peppers from Gardengate.

8-10c organic raw cider vinegar
10tsp sea salt
2-3T local honey
2-3kg organic banana peppers, slit on the end
4 garden fresh grape leaves (optional)
1-2 organic red hot pepper (optional)

Take a clean 4L crock and put the grape leaves in the bottom to help keep the peppers crisp. Cut off the old part of the banana pepper stem and slit the end of the banana pepper. Fill the crock completely full of peppers. The peppers will compress down during pickling. Add the pickling solutions to the crock and weigh down the peppers with a plate and stone. I use granite river rocks that I find in the ditches around here. The stone shown here is a too big and I will go find a smaller one. I boil the stone in water before using.

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This is the banana peppers with the plate and stone on top. It is important to always have the peppers below the level of the pickling solution.

Frugal Tip: After you finish eating the banana pepper, do not throw out the pickling juice. Reuse the pickling juice for the vinegar portion of homemade salad dressing. Pickling juice can also improve the flavor and texture of home canned vegetables.