How To Make Israeli Pickles

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I'm a pickle freak. Not just for pickled cucumbers. I love pickled anything. Beets. Carrots. Green beans. Summer squash. Bell peppers. Pears. Yes, you can pickle fruit. You name it, I'll pickle it, and eat it. Most of the pickles I make are in a Caribbean vinegar-based pickling liquid, which I've concocted from several recipes over time, and sell quite well at market. Did you pick up on that? The selling at market? It means I won't be printing that recipe here.

But one pickle that I've never made and absolutely love is an Israeli pickle. Israeli pickles are fermented in a salt brine over several days. And if you can get your hands on them in a Kosher or Middle Eastern market, you'll see that the cucumber that's used is a specific gherkin grown in the Middle East. I've not yet found the seeds to grow my own, but I'm on the hunt for them. So I thought I'd give it a go since I was able to find some just harvested, organic, farm-fresh, Kirby cucumbers at the Pinecrest Gardens Farmers Market last week at Bee Heaven Farm's booth.

Ingredients:

Approximately 4 lbs pickling cucumbers, washed and dried
1 head of garlic, peeled and sliced thin
Fresh dill (I used my own out of the garden, but I estimate this to be equivalent to 1 package at the store)
1 Tablespoon crushed red chili pepper flakes, divided into 3
4 Tablespoons Kosher salt
Water, enough to fill the container you'll be using
Glass jar with lid
Metal knife

Instructions:

Find an appropriately sized glass jar with lid. I found one for $4 at my local grocery store by chance.

Glass jar with lid

Fill it with water and then pour that water into a pot. I used a measuring cup so I'd know how much water I was dealing with. My jar holds 9-1/2 cups of water give or take a splash.

Get your ingredients ready. Slice your garlic into thin slivers. Trim and quarter your cucumbers if you're using Kirby cucumbers like I did.

Note: You'll want to trim at least 1/16th inch off the blossom end of your cucumbers, according to several pickling/canning sources, to help maintain the crispness of your pickles. The blossom end contains enzymes that lead to softening.

Farm-fresh, organic, Kirby cucumbers



Garlic, dill, Kosher salt, and crushed red pepper flakes

 Into the jar, place one third of the sliced garlic, dill sprigs, and 1 teaspoon of the dried red chili pepper flakes. Now add half the cucumbers, followed by another third of the garlic, dill, and chili pepper flakes. Next add the other half of the cucumbers topped with the last third of herbs and spices.

Filled jar before adding water

Now add all 4 Tablespoons of Kosher salt to the water in the pot and bring it to a boil. Using a metal knife stuck down into the jar to help disperse the heat so your glass jar doesn't crack, slowly and carefully pour the boiling salt water mixture into the jar, leaving about half inch of head space.

Filled jar

Put the lid on the jar and let it sit till it's cool enough to move. Place the jar in the sunniest spot in your kitchen. I put mine in my kitchen window. Let it sit there for 3 days. Then you can move the jar to a different location for another 3-4 days. After a week, put your Israeli pickles in the refrigerator to get nice and cold, and give them a taste.

Israeli pickles

Let me know how yours turn out. I'll let you know how mine do.

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Earth Day 2012

Happy Earth Day! Make it your goal to reduce, reuse, and recycle in 2012.

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TV or Not TV

That is the question I asked myself when we first got to the farm. Would there even be time for TV? What do I really watch that's worthwhile? The news? I can get that on the web. Cooking and DIY shows? Again, recipes and projects can be found on the web. The big question. Can Mickey live without the TV? Now that's a different story.

So I compromised. I got a Roku box and turned on Netflix. It cost $8.95 a month and provides all sorts of things to watch -- TV series, documentaries, movies. Granted, nothing live. But I figured it was enough to start with and, if he really had TV withdrawal and just couldn't live without it, we could get Hulu for $18 a month. Thankfully, Netflix has kept him happy satisfied.

Now at the condo in Pompano Beach (side note: my life has changed a lot in less than a year, but that story will unfold with time), I find myself facing the same question. TV or not TV? I survived just fine with Netfix at the farm. Truth be told, I didn't really have time for even that what with feeding chickens, planting crops, canning and baking for the 2 farmers markets we sold at, etc., etc. More often than not, I'd fall asleep within minutes of sitting down out of pure exhaustion.

What will I do without TV? What did people do before TVs became so commonplace in today's society? Here's a list of 10 things to keep me busy off the top of my head:

• Work in the garden
• Preserve the harvests from the garden thru canning, freezing, and dehydrating
• Clean and organize the urban homestead
• Stitch, be it knitting, crocheting, or needlepointing (I have 2 knitting projects I'm currently working on, 1 needlepoint, and I'm learning to crochet)
• Read (gosh, I haven't read a good book in forever)
• Take a walk to the beach and enjoy the view
• Take a photography class or at least work on my photography skills (which I sorely lack)
• Research and implement projects here on the urban homestead to improve its efficiency and my self-sufficiency skills
• Save the money I'd spend on cable and put it away for a vacation, urban homesteading projects, or a rainy day
• Keep up with my blogging

TV or not TV? That is the question.

So there it is. Not TV. That is my answer.

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It's Been Way Too Long

It's been way too long since I've posted. And my life has changed ... in many ways. A lot of work, hard work, is involved in getting a farm started and keeping it going. But more of that later. Just wanted to let you know that I'm making a concerted effort to begin posting again on a regular basis.

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Adventure of the Week

I've taken to scanning Craigslist a couple times a week for anything I think might be useful on the farm. Tools. Vehicles. Compost. Livestock. All of these things will be needed. On Tuesday morning as I did my perusing with a hot cup of coffee in hand, a Chevy van jumped out at me as looking like a good deal. I knew it had to be a Chevy, because that's the engine Mickey prefers on American-made vehicles. He was a used car mechanic for 17 years. And it was a 6-cylinder, so that gave it a star, too, with regard to better gas mileage. Now, if it was just what the Craigslist ad said it was. I jumped over to the Blue Book website to see if the price was in the correct range for it's age and condition. It was. Now to call the phone number listed in the ad.

Yes, the van was still there. It had just been listed the day before. The gentleman gave me the address and was willing to give me directions, but I told him I had a GPS and would call if I got lost. Oh, I forgot. The van was in a used car lot in Valdosta, Georgia. Actually, Valdosta is only 60 miles away from the farm, about the same distance to Gainesville. And from what I can tell, prices for lots of things are cheaper in Georgia. At least vehicles and gasoline. Similar vans were averaging $2000 more in Gainesville. So I talked handyguy Charlie into making the trip with me, just in case I needed someone to drive the van to the farm, and off we went.

It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to Valdosta, a straight shoot up I-75. And just as the salesman promised, the van was there and waiting for me. He even let us take it for a spin without asking for my license or first child. It was exactly what he said it was. What do you know? A truthful salesman. I still insisted on him running the Carfax report for me, just in case he had not been told the truth by the owner. But even that turned out well. One owner, 1 small fender bender, no frame damage. The only thing that could make this better would be if I could get the salesman down in price. And I did just that. A whole whopping $300, which equated to a 7.5% drop in price. Not too bad for my first time negotiating a car deal on my own, huh?

The end result? Why, our first farm vehicle, of course.

It'll be used first and foremost for delivering produce and setting up for market, but it should prove useful in many other ways, too. Now for van driving lessons for me.

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Chicken Rustling on the Urban Homestead

We've been robbed. Really. Our urban homestead has been visited by chicken rustlers. I originally ordered 36 meat birds. The hatchery sent us 40 chicks. They all survived. I counted them numerous times when they were babies and still corral-able, if that's a word. There were 40 chickens, roosters and hens alike, but 40 chickens in total.

This past Tuesday was the day they were scheduled to be readied for the freezer. As directed, Mickey had fed them their last meal on Sunday evening and they received only water from Monday forward to make sure they didn't get dehydrated. Not feeding the chickens for 24 hours makes for a cleaner and much easier processing. Tuesday, Mickey and the husband of the friend whom I had bartered with to perform the freezer readiness duties did their jobs transferring the 12-week old chickens into cages and getting them to my friend. It was a several-part transfer because the cages weren't large enough to hold all the birds, but it worked out well because she would be working on the batch she had just received while they guys were transporting the next batch.

And then I received a Facebook chat message from my friend asking me how many birds there were again. I responded quickly with the 40 I knew it to be. She said she had counted twice and there were only 34. I didn't know what to say to her. All I could think was that while I've been up in Lake City readying the farmhouse for move-in that some of the birds had passed and Mickey didn't have the heart (or the guts) to tell me. He was having a rather tough emotional go of it with the purpose of the day, and I decided I wouldn't ask for a day or two, giving him time to get past the situation.

So here's what appears to have happened. One day a couple weeks ago, Mickey came home to find our backyard gate open and a bicycle he had never seen before lying in the walkway between our home and our neighbor's. He thought it was odd, but let it go and continued into the backyard to count the hens who roam freely and might have escaped. All 10 were there. He noticed some feathers in the yard, but again let that go knowing that all 10 hens were safe. It never crossed his mind that it might be the meat birds because they were safely locked in our homemade chicken tractor. He could see them. And the tractor was locked. There were lots of red chickens. About an hour later, he went back outside and the bicycle was gone.

My guess is that someone in the neighborhood was hungry. And I'm okay with that. I've always told anyone stopping by to see the garden or the chickens that if they want something all they have to do is ask. I often give egg customers fresh produce from the garden when they stop to pick up their egg orders. What goads me is this person didn't ask. I would have given them the chickens. I would never knowingly let someone go hungry if I have the means to feed them a meal.

So the missing chicken mystery is solved. We've got chicken rustlers in Pembroke Pines. Beware.

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What Is It About Laundromats?

What is it about laundromats that give me the creeps? Is it because they're usually in the worst parts of town? That they're hot and stuffy? That they always feel dirty to me? I've been twice now since I got up here to prepare the new farm for living in. The first visit was exactly what I remembered my experience to be in my early 20s on first moving to south Florida. Hot. Dusty. Dingy. Stuffy. Uncomfortable. Almost creepy. This one was located right next to a liquor store in the not best part of town, so there were lots of people in and out of the parking lot who didn't look to be walking straight. They probably weren't driving straight either, now that I think about it.

Always good to be able to pick up a bottle while doing laundry.

My second trip to the laundromat I looked for a step up and found it. A newer laundromat, newer machines, and air conditioning. Well, sort of. It was definitely cleaner, less dingy, and cooler. The A/C was running with the doors open to let out the dryer heat. The seating wasn't any more comfortable. Metal chairs as opposed to wooden benches. Would it hurt the owners to supply a cushion or two, or do they want you uncomfortable on purpose so you get out of there more quickly? And the cost. Do they really need to charge $1.25 a load? My gosh! Somehow I remember 50 cents almost 30 years ago.

Looking forward to having my washer, dryer, and clothesline up here on the farm.

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