So, I'm a little sad.  After getting used to the abundance of the end of the CSA season, the veggie/fruit selection around here has become a tad lackluster.  I'll be heading to the local cider mills and markets soon to see whether I can dig up some inspiration.

With that, I think that the last of the CSA produce and green tomatoes from the garden needs to be chronicled on this blog.  I made pickles and sauerkraut, of course. And they're fantastic.

I actually got this Kraut to self-brine!  For the first time ever!   I think it had to do with the addition of 2 whole (sliced and cored) apples.

They say that this Winter is looking like it's going to be a rough one.  So, while we're still here in Indian Summer, I thought I'd share some shots of the PLETHORA of sun-loving tomatoes that have graced our tabletop (and dehydrator, and blender, and sandwiches, and sauces aaand... you get the picture). This has definitely been our bumper crop this season!












The kids are finally both back in school.  That gives me a little more time to play.
Here's a recipe for a new pickle that I tried out.  It's a new personal favorite, combining the sweetness of grape tomatoes with a sparkling, crunchy explosion of flavor.  Oh, and it's probiotic!

Cucumbers have been making their way into our kitchen by the bagful and I'm loving every second of it.  Over the last week, I've made another double batch of lacto-fermented dills, and a couple quarts of beautiful tiny refrigerator dills (actually, my youngest daughter played a big part in putting these together).  One of the bags of cukes that we got were overripe and HUGE.  I chopped 4 of them up and made traditional style sweet (bread and butter) pickles, and tried my hand at yet another recipe passed down from Oma.  "Geschmorte Gurken" is a braised stuffed cucumber recipe where you hollow out the seeds and use the cukes as little bowls to stuff with savory (Paleo-friendly!) filling.  And we still have more cukes so we aren't quite done yet!


Lets start with a little project I did with my 2-year-old daughter while her sister was at camp.  She was so excited to help (EAT) the little cucumbers that I had gotten specifically for pickling that I thought it was wise to just let her immerse herself in the process.  She did great and now we have 2 quarts of beautiful refrigerator dills to snack on. 

YUM!  boy were these good, too bad I only made 2 quarts!  I make pickles a few different ways, as you probably noticed from the Zucchini Pickle post, I make sweet "cooked" style pickles, as well as the vinegary, tangy refridgerator version (which I'll be making in the next couple of days and posting very soon after).  But before there were refrigerators, and easily obtained mass quantities of vinegar, there was brine and lacto-fermentation.  Lacto-fermented pickles are sour, and salty, and delicious and FULL of probiotic goodness.  You can make them with pretty much any spice and veggie combination you'd like.  I made mine out of whole pickling cucumbers with garlic, and dill as the main flavors. 

The first thing you need is a couple quart-sized wide mouth mason jars, with resealable caps.  Such caps can be ordered online fairly cheaply from here. 

Then you'll need an airlock with a rubber stopper to seal up the hole in the resealable cap, so that air can escape during the fermentation process. 

Jars are pictured in back of the ingredients