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applestar
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Pickle ingredients -- what do your grow yourself?

I was thinking I REALLY want to make more jars of my own pickles this year -- none of these artificial yellow colors and HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) stuff and no preservatives please!

Looking at a jar of bread and butter pickles, ingredients included mustard seeds, celery seeds and onion flakes. Do you grow your own mustard for seeds? Is there a special variety or can you use most any mustard family seeds? What about radish seeds or kale seeds?

What are pickles ingredients you (can) grow in your own garden?

Does anyone make their own vinegar?

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RamonaGS
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I don't like sweet flavored pickles, so I grew my own dill, and used fresh garlic in my brining liquid. I also used fresh oak leaves to avoid the cellular degeneration in the cucumbers I pickled. I did not use vinegar in my pickles, I just used brine, like you would to process fresh olives. I do have a friend that can make his own salt from the ocean water, but I'm apprehensive about trying that myself. I just use the store bought sea salt.

imafan26
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My dad pickles onions. We grew some Maui onions (Texas granex). They are very sweet but don't keep well. I do grow chili peppers and my dad has used those intead of the store bought wax pepppers and they are a lot hotter. Garlic and onions come in at the same time so I have used my home grown garlic too. Sometimes he pickles carrots with the onions in the same jar, but we bought the carrots.

The most common pickes here are Korean Kim chee using won bok cabbage, cucumber, fish, or daikon cubes and cayenne peppers (or you can buy kim chee base which already has the peppers in it. Takuan is a sweet pickle made with daikon radish but it isn't hot.

https://www.examiner.com/article/easy-ho ... led-radish
https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/heco/_h ... led-Onions
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi

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applestar
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Thanks! Any thoughts about the mustard seeds? -- I just saw in a seed catalog "Brown mustard -- seeds are used to make mustard...." 8)

...also, anybody make their own mustard?

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RamonaGS
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On the California central coast we have wild mustard that grows everywhere, so I asked about using it to make culinary mustard. I was told that the mustard we use in cooking is not the same as the wild stuff that grows out here. This stuff was the kind used to make mustard gas during WWI. I never got further than to find that out, but I'm a believer that if they can make it in a factory, we have to be able to make it ourselves without all the gnarly preservatives. All I know in particular is that the mustard seeds for table mustard are not the wild growing plants, but I'm stubborn and still not convinced that I couldn't make mustard from wild mustard seeds. So if you read an article about a lady in California who survives cancer to die of an accidental exposure to mustard gas...that might be me... :lol:

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jal_ut
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What are pickles ingredients you (can) grow in your own garden?
Cucumbers, onions, green Peppers, jalapeno, garlic, dill.

Haven't tried growing mustard seed.

Many other garden veggies can be pickled such as carrots, cauliflower, beans, beets.............

Rairdog
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I am going to try pickles this year also. Probably start off with just refrigerator pickles since I don't have canning equipment. I am planting dill, caraway, fennel so far and was wondering about mustard seed.

mattie g
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I'd like to think I've gotten pretty good at making spicy garlic dill pickles. I grow the cukes, dill, garlic, and jalapenos. The salt, vinegar, peppercorns, and mustard seeds are all store-bought. I cold can and store in the fridge, and the only issue I run into is a little degradation of the crunchiness after a couple months. These things are soooo good!

I aslo pickle jalapenos. Same as above - I grow the jalapenos and garlic, and the vinegar and salt are from the store.

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Lindsaylew82
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I thought about making some apple cider vinegar! I also thought about growing mustard seed.

All just rumblings in my mind though, with no real or solid intent... I've done ZERO research on either, but I'm interested!

I currently grow cukes, garlic, jalapeño, beans, zucchini, aaaaaaaaand okra (my favorite pickle!)

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applestar
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I needed to make room in my cupboards so I decided to check on my hone made apple cider vinegars.

I entertained the notion in this thread AGES ago:
Subject: Playing with Apple Cider and Other Fruit Vinegars

I'm going to go resurrect that thread. Join me there if anyone's interested. :wink:

Rairdog
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It seems I've read about planting mustard for fall cover crop. This would be great for seed. Does this need to be in a warm climate?

I grew Wisconson SMR 58 this year. They just get too big. If I missed by a day they were huge! I never seemed to get enough of similar size to make more than 1 qt at a time. Any suggestions?

smoxi
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applestar wrote:Thanks! Any thoughts about the mustard seeds? -- I just saw in a seed catalog "Brown mustard -- seeds are used to make mustard...." 8)

...also, anybody make their own mustard?
I made my first mustard just recently, I like whole grain style mustard and there was a 'so simple!' method in the perfect pickle book. Crush the mustard, moisten with a little water and cover with vinegar, leave for a week and voila. You can add other flavours as you like, suggestions are honey, green peppercorns, chillies, tarragon horseradish and different vinegars will change the flavour, different levels of crushing or grinding the seed will change up the flavour and texture.

I'd got a big bag of brown mustard seed in the supermarket for adding into the chutney mixes, so thought I'd give it a go for the eating mustard, haven't found white or black seed yet and I think it might be a bit cold now for trying to grow it but may try a few.

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applestar
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Ooh, sounds interesting. I'm going to have to try that. 8)

I bought a mustard making kit from pine tree gardens and made a brown Dijon mustard for my first try. It is very yum. (Used apple cider vinegar and added honey per included recipe. I also added garlic and herbs -- thyme, mex mint marigold/Texas tarragon, oregano, rosemary, parsley.). I'll plant the separately included two seed packets of two mustard varieties early next spring. :()

imafan26
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I don't make pickles but I do grow some of the ingredients. Cutting celery, I use it for the stalks but it is the source for celery seed on the spice rack. Dill, daikon radish, carrots, black pepper (it is a tropical vine and does not produce until it gets twenty feet long, at least and it is seasonal.), eggplant (miniature ones make good pickles), bay leaves. chili peppers, mustard and fenugreek (seasonal), ginger, coriander, chayote, and I have allspice and clove trees in the herb garden.

My grandmother used pickling spice in blood sausage and to pickle meat. My dad likes Chow-Chow which uses mustard and resembles chutney and chayote is one of the ingredients. Mango pickle recipes work great with chayotes instead. I don't have a mango tree, but my friends do.



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