A Quick Pickle Recipe,

 And A Note On Climate Change

I think it's pretty safe to say that we all knew what was coming yesterday, but it doesn't make it any less discouraging.  Pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement is shameful, heartless, and disgusting, making us a joke for the entire world.  We can do better, and we will.  I've been fighting writing publicly again.  Activism has been taking up a large chunk of my time, and writing about my garden, and what I've been cooking has seemed downright ridiculous.  What I am learning is that Joy is also an act of resistance.  Celebrate who and what you love.  Bring good into the world.  Teach people what you know.  Life feels so fragile right now.  I've been trying to embrace the "anything is possible', in the era of Trump as our president, and I've been especially trying to seek out possibility in a time that feels so dark and limiting.  So here we go.....  In the effort to use up a glut of radishes from my garden that were eating up space in my refrigerator, you know, waste not want not, I finally took the time to figure out the ratio for one quart sized jar of pickles, which could also easily be halved for a pint.  *The original inspiration for this recipe comes from Buvette, Jody Williams restaurant cookbook.

Quick Pickles by The Quart

1 clean quart sized jar

For this recipe I had a large amount of radishes, but not quite enough to fill the jar, so I layered them with some carrots from the back of the crisper drawer and I used garlic scapes from the garden instead of cloves of garlic.  Really you can pickle almost anything so your only limited by your imagination and the contents of your refrigerator.  

For The Brine

1 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup distilled vinegar, sometimes I also use apple cider vinegar

2 tsp sugar or 1 tsp honey

1 tbs sea salt

Combine water, vinegar, salt, and sweetener, stirring to dissolve

Spice Mixture

1 bay leaf

2 cloves garlic, I used scapes from my garden

1 tsp dill seed

1 tsp mustard seed

1 dried chili or a pinch chile flake

1/4 tsp celery seed

Seasoning is purely up to you, I just was using what I have on hand, try to keep the ratio about the same 2 1/4 tsp- 2 1/2 tsp total

Layer veggies and spices in jar, cover with brine add a lid and you're done.  They will be ready to eat after soaking for 24 hours and will keep in the refrigerator for 1 month or longer.