Getting pickled!!!

[HCT]

   Hens and guineas have been laying like mad lately.
Habs, your recipe has been getting a workout.
   Pickling cukes giving off great amount of cukes.
I'll be eating pickles for years.
   Now I have to round things off with pickled kielbasa and pickles tasso and ham.
Thanks seemore's.
   Now, if I only imbibed, I'd get pickled. ;D
Where did this summer go????????? 

[Habanero Smoker]

Pickles sound good. One of these day's I will get around to making some.

For us in the Northeast I have to say what summer. For the past 3 months it rained 3 to 4 times a week, an each storm was partially a down pour. It really put a crimp in my smoking plans.

[Caneyscud]

Guinea eggs - that sounds cool!  I've known people who raised quineas, but don't think any collected the eggs, just used them to keep pests down and to eat.  And I've used the feathers for fly tying, (I have skins and feathers of several varieties and species).  Stoopid question, but do they taste like a chicken egg?

[HCT]

Caney,
   The eggs are small, maybe the size of pullets. The taste is richer than chicken eggs. I use them in baking mostly or for breakfast. I've been raising them for 11 years now to keep the tick population down. They do a great job.

[Caribou]

 :D :D :D :D
HCT!
We're doing the same thing!  I have never seen so many cucumbers, zucchini and green beans.  I'm canning something everyday or doing the blanch/freeze/vacuum seal thing!
Now the beets are almost already, too!  No rest for the weary :)
Carolyn

[ExpatCanadian]

My own pickling cucumber crop failed miserably this year....  and I nearly gave up on finding any when I stumbled across a Lithuanian supermarket not too far away which had mounds and mounds of freshly harvested pickling cukes in their veggie section!  I was so excited I bought what I needed and they are now 1 week into their fermentation in my Harsch crock...  I make 'em the natural way with loads of garlic, dill and a few select spices, covered in a weak brine and left to ferment.  Should be ready in a few weeks!

[HCT]

Expat,
What's your recipe?

Ckes are winding down, but still have a bunch to pickle. ;)

Right now I'm in the process of pickling green beans, if I have time some eggplant.

[ExpatCanadian]

HCT,  I don't really follow much of a recipe.... much of the basic sour flavour comes from the fermentation itself, like sauerkraut.  I just add lots of fresh dill, both the leafy bits and the heads.  I then add a few cloves of chopped up garlic, for some reason the flavour really come through with fermentation, so even though I really like garlicky pickles I tend to go easy on the garlic.  The rest of it is down to personal preference as to what other spices you like in the finished product as these tend to not change much in the fermentation.  So I add a few teaspoons of mustard seed, some dill seed...  sometimes even just a few tablespoons of the pre-mixed pickling spices you can buy or sometimes nothing further at all.

The best cukes to use are freshly picked and only rinsed off with clean water, not scrubbed. You want the natural flora to remain on the surface as it's these "bugs" that create the fermentation.  I also cut a tiny (2-3mm) off of the blossom end...  this apparently gets rid of an enzyme that causes bitterness in the finished product.  However, having done these with and without this step, can't really say I've noticed much of a difference.

I use a Harsch fermentation crock which is designed specifically for this and makes your like easier:  http://www.canningpantry.com/sauerkraut-crocks.html.

I make up a brine that is 1 tablespoon of pickling salt or sea salt per litre of water.... and once the cukes, dill, garlic and spices are packed into the crock I fill it up with the COOLED brine to about an inch over the cukes; too hot will kill the fermentation.

If you don't have a Harsch crock, then it can be done in a normal crock or other food grade container too...  it's just a little bit more work.  Here is a link to one method of doing this, but if you google "Fermented Pickles" you'll come up with loads more.

http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2007/11/kosher-dill.html

Sorry it's not more specific, but like smoking it's more of an art than a science!

[HCT]

My kraut always comes out great. It's the fermentation that doesn't. Temps are too high now and when they come down the cukes are gone.