Exploring the World of Preserving and Pickling

Wasting food is never something that we want to do but it does happen sometimes. Especially, I feel, in the summer time my will to cook goes down a little and all my grocery hopes and dreams go out the window. Lately with my CSA I have been getting so many different types of greens, lots of veggies and some fruit; sometimes throughout the week we are not able to utilize everything.

This week I decided that instead of trying to auction off different foods to family members or offering stuff to my Dad for his Guinea pig to munch on, I would try to do something special with them.

Pickling and preserving is something that I have always wanted to try. Throughout these next few weeks and next few shares I am going to explore this world and let you know how it goes...

Simple Pickling Liquid
2 cup water
1 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp salt

Heat ingredient in a sauce pan until salt is dissolved and cool to room temperature. Pour over desired ingredient (in our case turnip was the pickle of choice) and allow to pickle for 3 days to 1 week.

After a supermarket visit, looking through some cook books and searching in the drawers and the back shelves of my fridge I decided that I was going to try to make Lift. Lift Makbouse is an Arabic side dish, basically all it is is pickled turnips, if you have ever eaten at an Arabic or Lebanese restaurant they may serve them to you as an appetizer, they are usually pink.

Lift Makbouse

2 large turnips, peeled and cut into sticks

1 small beet, peeled and cut into sticks

3 cups pickling liquid

1 Mason jar or heavy duty Ziploc bag

Add chopped turnip and beet to jar or bag, pour pickling liquid over and seal tightly (if using a bag I would recommend to double bag to avoid leaking). Refrigerate 3-7days and serve as desired.

 

Lift (Pickled Turnips)...will pickle for 3 days to about a week for crunchy/sour bites, the longer they sit the softer they are.

Dill/Garlic Pickles

I have also been getting a lot of strawberries from the farm share. Because I am the primary fruit eater in the house I was finding that I want able to eat them all in time. The easiest way to preserve your fruits and vegetables is to freeze them, simple enough right! I simply laid out the strawberries on a cookie sheet but them in the freezer for about 1 hour, transferred them to a heavy duty freezer bag and have them anytime I need.

Bag of Frozen Strawberries for use in Smoothies, Homemade Fruit Roll Ups, making Jelly, and more!