Pickled Carrots

Perhaps I've mentioned Orangette in the past? Perhaps I've cursed her (in jest of course) for exposing me to a heretofore unknown and undesired world of morels, a passion which I'm afraid might leave me too poor to even pay for my own wedding.

Well, Orangette got married a few weeks ago, and she and her now husband did a lot of the cooking themselves. I'm thoroughly impressed and can only hope of presenting our guests with 1/100th of the homemade goodness that she's working on. She's the inspiration for our first attempt at pickled vegetables - pickled carrots.

John used the following recipe.

Ingredients * - local, & = organic

• 1.5 cups of water
• 3 cups apple cider vinegar &
• 2 cloves of garlic *&
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard seed
• 1/2 tablespoon Thyme
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 2 teaspoons onion powder
• 3 bunches of carrots *&

John trimmed the carrots and stacked them in quart sized mason jars. He then mixed the other ingredients together in a large sauce pot and set them to boil. Once they came to a nice rolling boil, he let the mixture simmer for 4-6 minutes and poured the hot liquid over the carrots. We let the jars cool and put them in the fridge.

We've tasted the carrots once a week since then and I will call them a success. After one week, they were simply average. After two, the flavors had meshed a bit more and they took on a slightly more rounded flavor. After three weeks, they were even better. We still have two full jars in the fridge and I'm looking forward to seeing if the flavors change further as time passes.

I'm excited about trying our hand at other pickled vegetables over the next few months. We're having two weddings - one in New England and one in Seattle, and hopefully the Seattle wedding guests will be treated to a variety of local, organic, and homemade treats. Stay tuned...