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Pickling is usually done just before winter to preserve your vegetable surplus to last through the cold months. But I think pickles are good to have all year round.
We’ve been growing many types of radishes in our veggie patch in the Southern Highlands. Here I have used Black Spanish Long, Black Spanish Round, Icicle, and Hail Stone radishes.
I just used all the radishes I had from the garden so didn’t weigh them. I cut the larger radishes in half and left the small ones whole. You can keep the tops on if they are young, but I decided to cut them off to a short stem.
Recipe
200 grams white sugar
1 litre apple cider vinegar
1 litre water
1 dozen black peppercorns
4 bay leafs (1 for each jar)
1 small dried chilli
Sprinkle of fennel seeds
(You can use other spices if you like. This recipe is quite sweet so add some salt if you prefer).
Add all ingredients to a pot and simmer until sugar is dissolved.
Place radishes into sterilised jars and pour liquid and spices into jars. Make sure there are no air bubbles in the jars. Seal with a lid.
I didn’t quite have enough to fill the jars so there is a little extra room!
I’m looking forward to the Christmas break so I can snack on all the goodies we’ve been exchanging.
The heavy downpour of rain last week presented the perfect opportunity to harvest some worm wee (or worm juice to be polite) from our worm farm. Our worm farm is in fact a worm mansion towering four stories high!
We feed the worms all fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps except garlic, onion, and citrus. We also have a compost for leaves and other green matter. Worm wee is a great fertiliser.
Essentially, the rainwater filters through each layer and catches in the bottom container. Sometimes we leave the tap open with a bucket underneath when there is lots of rain so liquid can come straight out and the worms don’t drown.
To use worm wee all you have to do is dilute 1 part worm wee to 10 parts water. I usually use a 10L watering can which makes it easy to measure out. I’ve filled up some recycled 2L milk bottles to share with the group.
