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A Passion for Pickling

One day last summer I was wandering through the Vashon Island Farmers’ Market and I caught sight of the odd little green things above. To be honest, I thought they looked like miniature watermelons, ready to serve up at a dollhouse picnic. Lilliputian melons.

But ever since my experience with the kiwi berries, I stop and try. I’m still kicking myself for missing out of half the kiwi berry season because I didn’t investigate these small green delights.

And in fact, the basket of green mini-watermelons looked somewhat similar to the kiwi berries. Perhaps this was a different variety that fruited in summer? I had to find out.

Turns out they were mini cucumbers—Mexican sour gherkins. They were grown by Island Meadow Farm, as an experiment. This is what I love about small farmers, they’re the type of folks who will grow a Mexican sour gherkin, just to see how it tastes and how it does in their climate and soil. They’re willing to take on a few experiments, and we get to benefit from their curiosity and whimsey.

Tiny in size, the gherkins were softer than a cornichon, but apparently good for pickling. Since my new resolution is to try everything once, especially the unusual things, I bought a basket and took it home with me.

Eaten raw they were fine—a bite of juicy, refreshing cucumber flavor. I didn’t notice anything very “sour” about them. They were fresh and clean tasting: cucumber flavor in convenient, one bite packaging.

I decided to pickle them, and that’s mostly what I want to talk about today: pickling. I’ve made my share of dill pickles at this point, sweet and sour ones as well. Pickling is often an end-of-summer sort of activity—canning up all those cucumbers while they are in season, stocking up for the winter ahead. But really, pickling doesn’t need to be that labor intensive, and it doesn’t need to be confined to some hot day in August or September.

You can pickle so many vegetables. How about carrots, or beets, or onions, or even Jerusalem artichokes? Brandon—he of Orangette and Delancey fame—once gave me a jar of Jerusalem artichokes pickled in a sweet-sour brine with slivers of shallots, thyme, and red peppers that were so good I’ve kept the brine in a bottle so that some day I can recreate that flavor. There are so many things you can pickle.

I’m talking refrigerator pickles here, not canning or otherwise sealing the jars. If the brine you use has enough salt and vinegar, and you keep it in the fridge with the vegetables fully submerged, you can be fairly well assured that they are going to be safely preserved. Naturally, if you find your pickles developing mold, scum on the surface, changing smell or color significantly, you’ll know they’ve gone off and want to throw them out.

Between you and me, a batch of pickles never lasts that long in my house.

That’s what I did with the Mexican sour gherkins. I poured a hot brine over them, added some garlic and fresh coriander seed from the garden. Then I let the salt and the vinegar do its work, and waited a few days. Honestly, the hardest part of the process is waiting.

What came out, after a reasonable number of days had passed, was a sheer delight. The gherkins are fairly juicy, so every piece was a burst of pickle flavor in the mouth, which surprised and pleased me to no end. While most of them were popped straight into mouth, they would make a dandy addition to some cocktail—a martini, perhaps. They’re just tiny enough to add a few to a nice drink.

If I could give you any advice it would be this:

• Try the odd things you find at the farmers’ market. How else will you know what goodness you might be missing?

• Try pickling something. It’s much easier and more rewarding than you think. It might even become a passion.

[I'm not the only one falling for Mexican sour gherkins. Check out this post on Diary of a Locavore.]

BASIC PICKLING BRINE

You can go all sorts of directions with a pickling brine—sweet and sour, sour and spicy, the sky’s the limit. This is a basic framework to get you started. Feel free to add whatever herbs/spices you’d like. Garlic adds flavor, peppers add heat. Play and have fun.

2 quarts water


1 cup white vinegar


1/2 cup canning & pickling salt (can use kosher salt, just make sure it fully dissolves)

In a large enough saucepan, add the ingredients and bring to a strong simmer, stirring until the salt has all dissolved.

Thoroughly wash whatever vegetable you wish to pickle, and cut into small pieces if necessary (should probably not be thicker than one inch).

Place vegetables in an impeccably clean glass container (submerge in a pot of boiling water, or run through a dishwasher and remove hot). Add any garlic or herbs, as desired.

Add hot brine until it covers the vegetable entirely. No bit should break the surface of the brine.

Allow to cool, cover, put in fridge. You’ll want to wait a few days for the to flavor develop before eating.

Can be kept in fridge for a few months—so long as no mold, scum, spoiling occurs. Monitor regularly and discard if there is any cause for concern.