I recently started a foray into pickling. This comes after my limited success with gardening of sorts. I thought for a long time I couldn't grow anything. I killed aloe vera, which I've been told is one of the easiest plants to grow. I convinced myself I didn't have a green thumb.
I don't know why I wanted to try again, but I have always wanted a pepper plant, so I gave it a shot. I bought the little guy at Lowe's and put him on my patio. Immediately he produced two peppers, but then did little else. I'm pretty sure I did everything one could do wrong to my pepper plant, including leaving the poor thing out during the most significant snow Texas has see in several years. I apologized to him profusely, begging it not to die. To my excitement/astonishment, he lived. This spring he produced about 5 peppers, all of them MUCH hotter than the two initial peppers. I'm convinced he was mad at me for the snowstorm incident.
After the success of my pepper plant, I started some herbs, including basil which I grew from the seed. I now have chive, mint, my basil and yes, even an aloe vera plant (which I'm happy to say is doing very well).
So now I am on to pickling. I ran across some fresh okra at central market one day and thought "I want to pickle that." who knows why? It seemed like a good idea. I bought the okra and some pickling spice and went home very cheery. Too bad I forgot I didn't have any mason jars. Bummer.
I located some jars, lids and rings the next day. I got a recipe off the Internet and set to work. For a novice, pickling is a lot of work. You have to sterilize everything and since I was paranoid, I think I sterilized everything twice. I did a lot of things wrong. I ran out of vinegar half-way through, as well as salt (not to mention my salt was the wrong kind). I didn't pack the jars full enough. I forgot to get garlic. My jars were too big. Not to mention the fact that it took me several hours to finish the whole ordeal. I got through around 1 am. But in the end I had 4 large jars of pickled okra.
Recently I went to my grandmothers house and talked to her about my pickling adventures. I should have talked to her before I started. She gave me an old pickling/canning cookbook that had tons of recipes, including some of her own handwritten ones. She gave me a ton of jars and rings. We spent quite a bit of time bonding over what you should/can/don't have to do when pickling. I got a ton of info from her. My grandmother and I didn't always get along but we have become much closer in recent years. She is kind of a distant woman, but she lights up when we have a common interest. My mother canned and pickled also. In a weird way, I feel closer to both of them for taking up this little hobby.
So tonight, I am on to pickling, well, pickles actually. I guess technically cucumbers. I will do some more okra also. I went a little crazy at the farmer's market on Sunday. At some point tomorrow, I will probably call my grandmother to talk about it and ask some question about what I think I did wrong. She will be reassuring but I won't be convinced until I taste the results for myself....a month or so from now.
