We pickled and canned jalapeño peppers for the first time yesterday. I picked several quarts of jalapeños at New Roots Farm--another banner year for this easy to grow hot pepper.
Amma (my mother-in-law) and I sliced and de-seeded each pepper then stuffed them into pint jars along with 1/2 teaspoon canning salt, 1/4 teaspoon pickling spices, and one clove garlic. The jar was then filled with a mix (50-50) of simmered water and white wine vinegar. We have a pressure canner, but read that a boiling hot water bath is preferred so we used the latter method, for 10 minutes.
After slicing up 6 pints worth of jalapeños we realized that using gloves would be useful next time. By the end our fingers were tingling from handling jalapeños. Now we wait a couple weeks to let the pickling do its thing before we taste test.
This is also one of the best tomato years. We've had a few bad years of late--with early blight, late blight, too much rain, not enough rain, too many hornworms. This year conditions seem to be just about right. Two trays of tomatoes sit on the kitchen counter waiting to be canned later today.
From here we move on to making salsa.....so much produce in such a short time.
'After slicing up 6 pints worth of jalapeños we realized that using gloves would be useful next time.' I think this can probably be called comic understatement
ReplyDeleteHope you survived it and didn't touch your eyes. I once did that after buying some Habaneros and not realizing they are among the world's hottest peppers.
We do love pickled jalapenos. Those look delicious! This year we're growing Serranos again. They have such a fresh, slightly fruity flavor that we love. We'll end up freezing most of them and then use them throughout the next year. I think we've just about finished the ones from last year.
Always a pleasure to hear your garden report!
Ouch! Ken--habaneros sound painful... Our hands were tingling for 2 days after working with the jalapenos.
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