Pickling: selective choices
At home, it is easy to pickle different crops. First, the vegetables must be prepared (harvested, cleaned and skinned) and then cooked. There is a wide range of produce that can be pickled, with herb and chilli vinegars making increasingly popular presents in attractive bottles – the popularity of home-made presents seems to be a welcome comeback.
Herbs should be pickled before flowering: best are French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and thyme (Thymus species). Chives can also be used.
Mary's favourite crops to pickle
- I grow round beetroot ‘Pablo’, which seems to be best pickled when the size of a golfball (if pickling whole). Harvest them larger if you prefer to slice them; unlike some beetroots, this cultivar does not go woody as it gets larger.
- Small, tight-skinned onions such as ‘SY 300’ are good for pickling and great for using on barbecues or adding to a casserole. As with normal, larger onions, they also dry-store well. I have had success growing heat-treated (which stops bolting) white onion ‘Hytech’ and red onion ‘Hyred’, and when matured they are hung out to dry on wires in the glasshouse; for kitchen use, they last us almost until the season comes round again.
- We grow just three ‘Byblos’ cucumbers in our unheated glasshouse and they yield plenty of cucumbers for salads and some for pickling, sliced with sweet vinegar and plenty of dill.
- To make chilli vinegar use small and red ‘Apache’.