Gardening, canning, pickling and everything related

[Tex_77]

Well the garden is starting to yield some produce!

[Chef]

Tex_77 Looking Good, Salsa on the way

[RON PARRISH]

Tex_77 I haven’t forgot wing sauce recipe.I will get it to you I just haven’t been home much.dealing with sick mother

[Parksider]

Anyone have a favorite quick dill pickle recipe? Just haven’t found one that really nails it…

[[[global:former-user]]]

Parksider Find someone that grows grapes and get some leaves from their plants. I never was very happy with my home canned dills until I found this trick to making good crunchy pickles. Put a grape leaf in the bottom of the jar, pack the jar with a recipe that sounds good and place another leaf on top, seal and process. I’ve opened jars that were 2 years old and they are still fresh and crunchy. Soggy pickles are the pits!

[calldoctoday]

@Fat-Bob Well that is interesting. We have grapes & maybe we need to get serious about pickling again. We haven’t been really serious about them since the 80’s & before them we pickled up a lot of cucumbers, radishes, & even turnips & grew all our own too. We had a good hot bath method & a good refrigerator method (the crunchiest). However, other than a friend’s really good conversion recipe, we don’t do that many any more, but we need to try this.

[[[global:former-user]]]

An 80-something year old lady told me about it and I was shocked how well it works. I’ve tried alum, pickling limes and nothing worked like grape leaves. I make a version of garlic dills that were just OK until I remembered what she told me. I think I could sell them now. LOL

[deanlorensen]

I will second or third or what the grape leaves. They make a huge difference in pickles. I put them in my hot dilly beans, all kinds of pickled vegetables.

[RON PARRISH]

I agree . Never make pickles without them!!

[TexLaw]

@Fat-Bob I forgot about the grape leaves for pickles. Some family friends used to make tons and tons of pickles when I was growing up, and they’d always give us some jars. They always threw a couple muscadine grape leaves in each jar (along with a handful of muscadine grapes, which were great!).

[Parksider]

Wow! I have a very heathtly grape vine that is going crazy this year, that’s awesome. I’m a fan of the refrigerator pickles.

[glen]

I have no grape vines.
Do supermarket canned grape leave work?

[[[global:former-user]]]

glen Steal them from the neighbors. I don’t know if canned will work or not. I pick enough for a couple year when I , um, barrow them. Wash them and dry them with a paper towel then vacuum pack them and into the freezer. I’ve used three year old one before and couldn’t tell the difference in the final product.

[glen]

Thanks Bob, my brother in law has some vines and I will get some and vac pack

[rich]

oak leaves will work to

[Tex_77]

Made some salsa verde today! The garden is really coming on!

[YooperDog]

Tex_77 your tomatillas are bigger then my tomatoes. Looks like some good salsa.

[Tex_77]

YooperDog You’d hate to see the size of my tomatoes.

[Joe Hell]

Tex_77 Yum! Yesterday I had Mulitas Chuleta en Chile Verde from ‘The Happy Wanderer’ Mexican restaurant…they were delicious!

I gave up on growing tomatillos years ago. I never had luck with them. My garden is really starting to produce. Squash, zucchini and cucumbers are coming on strong right now and it’s looking to be a bumper crop of tomatoes.

[Tex_77]

Joe Hell I have no idea what you ate…lol. The key to growing them is you have to have at least plants. I have had one good year, one bad, and this year seems to be going ok.

My cucumbers are coming on strong as well, I’ve made a cucumber salsa as well as creamed cucumbers. I’ve also been grilling a lot of zucchini and yellow squash.