Backyard Farmer Pickling

For Christmas, one of my gifts from Josh was this Backyard Farmer Pickling Kit.  He knows I really miss having a garden and making pickles and other preserves.  I am still lacking the garden veggies, especially in New Jersey in the winter, but making the pickles is so fun and relaxing.  The company also carries Salsa's BBQ sauces and jams that I am sure would be great. 

The kit comes with 4 jars, 4 different types of brine, labels, and instructions for the brines.  This time I chose to try the sweet and tart pickling mix.  Making these were so easy!  You get to skip the boiling  of the jars, the worrying about them sealing and the 3 months of having to wait for the pickles to be done. 

All I needed for the liquid was the little brine packet, some vinegar, water and sugar.  Just have to heat it until the sugar is dissolved and thats it!

In the meantime I cut up my veggies of choice.  Had I been thinking more I would have bought some green beans and asparagus, two of my favorite kinds of pickles, but the carrots, cucumbers and peppers that I chose work just fine.

Then I tightly packed the jars with the veggies in the jars and poured the brine overtop.  I was a little short, so I added a mixture of 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water to top them off.

I used put the lids on tight, shook them up and used some gel pens to make the labels all cute.  They then have to go in the fridge, only for 24 hours!

Even though I only HAD to wait 24 hours, I left them an extra day just to be sure.  The cucumbers and peppers are amazing!  Very much like Bread and Butter pickles like Grandma's.  the carrots will be good, but because they are a harder vegetable they don't absorb the flavor quite as well.

If you love pickles, and don't feel like all the work, give these a try!  The kit is very affordable and even though I consider myself a pickle expert, I can barely tell the difference!