Avert your gaze, we’re kinda busy
By Laura Grimes
Sorry we’ve been neglecting the blog. Mr. Scatter is finally home and we’re in the throes of passion.
We’re making pickles. (What were YOU thinking?)
As you’ll recall, we’re The Condiment Family. In fact, we even have our own motto:
Practice safe snacking. Always use a condiment.
Read last year’s pickle post here. It’s about love, death and those crunchy little cucumbers — sometimes sweet and sometimes sour.
Making pickles is a many-day endeavor that begins easily enough with a many-store shopping trip.
Weeks ahead of time, when the canner is still just a gleam on the calendar, we horde jars and lids and rings and pickling spices. Then we realize we don’t have enough of any of them and we buy more.
At some point in late August/early September we block out several days in a row, stock up on Deep Heating Rub and head to the farm to buy a cartful of cucumbers. We buy peppers and garlic.
This is what greeted us when we arrived at the farm:
Auspicious? Get this. The nice man minding the tomatoes said the chihuahua’s name is Alvin. When we asked, “Alvin?” He said, “Yeah, as in Alvin and the Chipmunks.” True story, made the more interesting because of this.
This year we picked up 50 pounds of pickling cukes and 5 gallons of vinegar.
We washed the virgin cukes:
And found a surprise:
Conjoined twins!
Mr. Scatter is in charge of the pickle prep table, where the magic of packing the jars happens:
After washing and packing and filling and screwing and a hot bath, we got this:
It took only 7 hours and 4 trips to the store (plus many more). It took only 7 hours more to clean the kitchen. The final tally? 40 quarts of spicy dills and 8 pints of sweets. We hadn’t counted on doing sweets this year, but I found a packet of leftover spices from last year that were already mixed. Unexpectedly, that seriously cut into the sugar supply and we nearly ran out. Coming down the homestretch I had to rummage through cupboards and the car for little packets. How stupid is that?
On to apple chutney!
September 6th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I envy you your pickles. We started doing sauerkraut last fall, thinking a batch or two would be enough to last through the year. Ran out after a couple weeks, so made some more. And some more. And some more. And all through the winter and into spring. Choucroute garnie. Chicken and sauerkraut. Reuben sandwiches. Reuben soup. Friends who thought they didn’t like kraut discovered a severe addiction. Oh, the difference from what you find in the store! Ain’t autumn grand!
September 6th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
George, I let out an involuntary ooooh when I read about your kraut. Sounds divine. I must have your recipe. Would love to swap you for some pickles sometime. Or maybe mustard to go with those Reuben sandwiches. We have some plumping up on the counter right now. Love autumn, but I would definitely hit replay on summer.
September 7th, 2010 at 8:45 am
The lede in the NYTimes Magazine food column on Sunday: “The last of the tomatoes are coming in now, wide and cracked…” The LAST of the tomatoes??? We harvested our first ones only a week ago, and the rest are hanging green with unfulfilled promise. Promise that, I fear, will never be realized. So, perhaps not a replay, but an extended play on summer would be nice.
I love the idea of a kraut for cukes swap. It’ll have to be a few weeks down the road, since we have yet to process our first fall batch. In the meantime, we use the instructions the Oregonian ran a couple years ago: “Getting into Sauerkraut,” October 21, 2008.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
I’ll get you my pretty(s)! No, really, I’m talking about the pickles. Or is it, I’ll get you my pretty and your little pickles too!
Have you noticed that you cannot go one day without a Wizard of Oz reference? Just try it. It’s everywhere. Someone will invariably quote, or allude to their flying monkey, or any one of a dozon others…..just you wait!
September 7th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
dozen….dozon is Japanese I think.