Gee, I wish I had some more wine and cheese, and some fish for dozens tonight, because I think it would be fun to have a party. (Frothing you can bring that 12-pack ). Anyways, I have made some various kinds of preserves this week and have mostly been focusing on cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, and cabbage, because it was harvested and looking at me. I preserve food using various methods and in this photo I have some of the different ways shown visually what they look like.
Here you have from top to bottom and from left to right:

some (pasteurized) bread and butter pickles, next cherry tomatoes in vinegar:cool stuff (no heat, no pasteurization), more pasteurized pickles, pears, cherries, all the pickles to the right of the butter former are for my friend who gave me the cucumbers. He likes bread and butter pickles the way I make them, and that is why I have lots of that. I use organic cane sugar instead of white, I use raw organic apple cider vinegar instead of pickling vinegar in most cases.

Shelf below is stuff from my grandma and great-grandma, blankets made during the depression years, they are nice. I use them, but the shelves weren't full yet, so wanted to show those off too (and the feral pig ). I have several more quilts like that. Gee I hope I can take them with me if I have to leave here in a hurry, if not, oh well.

Ok, then the bottom shelf is getting into stuff that interests me a little more. To your left you have 3 or 4 varieties of cherry tomatoes ( I have about 50 plants, around 14 different varieties still coming in) preserved in olive oil. Simple. Tomatoes, herb, your choice whatever you want, a little raw apple cider vinegar, salt (I use himalayan), shallots, you can throw in some garlic too if you want, olive oil to cover generously. This post is not a recipe post... you need to do your research to ensure safety. PM me if you're interested. It is soooo easy.


Next pasteurized dill pickles. It's kosher too.

The final two rows to your right, they look cloudy, don't they? Well, those are lacto-fermented cucumbers. All that is in there is cucumbers (pickling variety), water (NON- CHLORINATED, or it will not work!!!), salt, and herbs if you want. I put in some hot peppers in some, some dill in some, mustard seed, black or green peppercorn. If you want those lacto-fermented pickles to stay crispy you can place a grape leaf on top of it, like I did, and that is supposed to retain the crispiness. I didn't know about that last year, and my pickles were mushy. I am finishing them now: no heat, no killing of beneficial nutrients, the process helps the gut and overall health.

Anyhow, that process is so easy.

Below, is a big crock with alternatin layers of very well washed cabbage, onion, garlic, salt. Each layer is about 3" deep. It is going to transform into sauerkraut.

All that mess to the left is my storage area, for now, for all my saved seeds. They've gotta move soon, it will be too warm for them come winter when our house will be too hot.


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Hope you enjoy!