We’re continuing to pack away the preserved foods for winter and spring with today’s effort involving the production of an old-fashioned military pickle. The recipe is another one from Mary Norwak’s The Farmhouse Kitchen, with a list of ingredients that includes cauliflower, marrow (in our case, courgettes), beans and onions.
Adding a hefty amount of turmeric and ginger to the raw vegetables creates a pickle with an almost toxic glow. It does taste superb, though.
Half an hour of boiling later and we found ourselves with nine large jars of military pickle. We still have quite a few more batches of pickles, relishes and chutneys to make, probably including an onion relish, a cucumber relish and something involving tomatoes. And that’s on top of more pickled onions, pickled carrots, pickled courgettes and pickled beetroot.
We have about 65 jars of pickles, relishes, chutneys, jams, conserves and preserves on those two shelves alone, plus we have oodles of frozen broadbeans and carrots as well with more still to pick and store. One tip with shelving - make it strong! Our shelves are screwed and glued onto three two-inch deep braces (front, centre and back) that run lengthwise while two more braces run front to back. Five 40mm screws then go through the sides of the old wardrobe into each end brace. The existing top shelf is also due for reinforcing, so only has the relatively light load of two month’s worth of oats, rice, pasta and grains. (And that’s just one section of one cupboard!)
Truly scrumptious!
Yum! I feel very hungry looking at all your lovely goodies - I would especially like to try some of your jams and pickles. The military pickle looks fabulous!