It’s pickle season, à chez moi. 

I was slow to learn to love pickles that weren’t cucumbers and from a grocery.  Maybe my tastes have changed.  Maybe I’ve just been more willing to try new stuff.  For whatever reason, any more, I will pretty much try (and usually love) any vegetable that has been pickled. I already knew how to make my grandmother’s sweet pickles.  And in the last decade, with the help of a cousin and another friend, I have learned to pickle my own okra, jalapenos, beans and green tomatoes.

Have you ever had chow chow?  It’s pickled cabbage, peppers, onion and green tomatoes.  So, it’s very much a summer production. The spices are turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.  I was 61 before I tried it because the turmeric gives a weird yellow color and I assumed a flavor it did not have. (My dad loved it on navy beans and couldn’t convince me to try it.)  Last winter, I finally got into some that Chuck had in the fridge.  I fell in love and finished the jar.

I made some for us last week using purple cabbage rather than green. It was really pretty before I canned it. Now, it’s all purple. And I have started a batch of Nanny’s sweet pickles. They’ll get jarred up sometime today.

I intend for there to be pickled green beans, too.  I got seeds for Chuck to plant purple French beans for that purpose.  Last year, I made some from bought beans, both green and purple. We learned that purple beans lose their color when you cook them. We knew it to be true for okra. So, we weren’t particularly surprised by the beans. The only way to tell those jars apart was by the faintly pink vinegar they held.

Also, I’ve been drying herbs from that bed.

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I was bringing vegetarian dressing and mushroom gravy to the family meal.  I had to go to 3 or 4 stores to find sage, including our co-op. (Apparently, Thanksgiving is the sage flavored holiday.)  So, I planted it.   Last summer, I dried some basil and it got us through the winter without buying any.  This year, I’ve got dill, sage, thyme, oregano and more basil from my herb bed going into jars and bottles.

If that sounds like I’ve been busy, don’t be fooled.  My flower beds are a mess (again) because it’s been too damn hot to control the grass.