I had a morning work session last week with jacob, one of the adamahniks, to do some experimental pickling and see if we could get a seasonal product out of it. I've pickled turnips and garlic scapes in the past with some delicious results, so I was trying to replicate what I did before and also try some other new things. we also pickled some kohlrabi, which is a root like veggie with the consistancy of an apple, an unearthly purple peel, and a nice sweet interior. I've never pickled kohlrabi before, so I'm curious to see what happens. we pickled on . . . thursday, I think? and I tried a few slices today - they have good consistancy but could be pickly-er. keep on proliferating, little lacto-bacilli.
altogether, we made about 10 jars containing turnips, kohlrabi, dill, garlic, garlic scapes, pickling spice, hot peppers and bay leaves in pretty much every permutation you could imagine. I'm very excited in particular about batch gimel, which has turnip, dill, pickling spice, hot peppers and garlic scapes.
perhaps you are curious about what the heck a garlic scape is.
that picture ist a nice amalgam of my job nowadays - sometimes I'm stuck at the computer, sometimes I get out into the fields to do a quick harvest. those green spirals are garlic scapes - essentially the immature garlic flower. when the garlic really starts to mature, it sends up the scape, which we cut off as soon as it reaches a certain amount of spiral (I say one, ellie says two). the idea is that by stifling its reproductive urges at one end, it'll send all its energy into the bulb and make it nice and fat. then we're left with these lovely scapes, which have a mild garlic flavor and are really fun to cook and pickle.
in closing, a quiz: which one of these is not a pickle?
no fair using the internet to cheat.
ummm....you?
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