Thursday, October 15, 2015

Stinkin' Good!

2" in diameter and smaller.  Little ones I left whole.
If life gives you green tomatoes, make? What life in Bend delivered to me in the garden was green tomatoes too small to fry but perfect for pickles.  Years ago I had eaten a pickled one that had seriously caught my attention. Garlic! Salt! Tangy tingles! Hadn't tasted a pickle so good since.

Normal pickles are made with vinegar. Spectacular pickles are fermented!  That was the key I had missed.
Three heads of garlic for this recipe: Wild Fermentation by
Sandor Katz


Grape or oak leaves for crispness
The only difficult part is waiting for three weeks for them to be really good.  Fortunately, they needed to be checked everyday and sampled to verify their progress. Terrible job, but someone has to do it.






The day they were terrifically finished, I put them in jars for the fridge and to give away.  That was the day of complaints!  Bad smells, I was told, really bad smells, like dog farts.  And we had house guests arriving in two hours.  Not acceptable, I was told. Hooray! These pickles are stinkin' good!  Airing the house is one of the things I get to do today.  Small price to pay.


A two-gallon crock and dried dill weed.

Finished pickles.

3 comments:

  1. Hello it is nice to visit with you again, these pickles will be wonderful. I have enjoyed seeing so many books and folks returning to the ways of yesteryear. It looks like life in Bend is going well. We are planning on retirement in about 2 years on the coast line. I can't wait.

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    1. And lovely to hear from you Melynda. We aren't quite the neighbors we used to be. You'll love the coast compared to the traffic of town. But then you know that!

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  2. There you are ,, making us think again.. We never heard of this pickles..
    but mommy talks about doggy poots sometimes,,, Its good to know how to air the house out!
    Now we will think about your pickles again,.,, Our grapes are fermenting,, and mommy says taste good!
    love
    tweedles

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