Pickling question

so lucky

Garden Master
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
Messages
8,342
Reaction score
4,953
Points
397
Location
SE Missouri, Zone 6
Also, I think we are talking about a jar or two of pickles that will be kept under refrigeration, not poorly sealed jars of corn left in room temperature for a year or more.
 

Crealcritter

Deeply Rooted
Joined
Jan 11, 2019
Messages
373
Reaction score
911
Points
187
Location
Zone 6B or 7 can't decide
I've had great luck with open pollinated Wisconsin SMR 58 here in zone 6B/7. Here's what they grow like on my 8' tee-pees.

IMG_20170715_195403260.jpg


IMG_20170715_195524137.jpg


I make fermented garlic sours and fermented garlic hot sours out of them. My wife makes bread and butter pickles, sweet relish and dill relish out of them, all are delicious.

Bread and butter pickles
IMG_20170719_184532874.jpg


Sweet relish
IMG_20170717_220244986.jpg


Yard cart of Wisconsin SMR 58 and my tomato theif.
IMG_20170716_193339362.jpg


I think most of us can remember fishing out a big ole garlic sour dill out of a 55 gallon wooden barrle at the store, when we were kids. This is the closest i've been able to come to reporducing those tastefully cruncky memories of my youth.

Fermented hot garlic sours. Wild black cherry leaves, dill heads, garlic, dried habenero flakes & mustard seeds. Wild black cherry leaves are the secret ingredient to keeping them crunchy :) Garlic sours are the same recipe just don't add dried habenero flakes.
IMG_20170717_171627290.jpg


Food grade 5 gallon bucket and saltwater brine. (Use spring water - clorine added to tap water will spoil the ferment) wash the pickles in spring water to clean and remove the spines so the brine penetrates the cuke during the ferment. Now aren't those some awesome looking pickles? That's what you can expect with Wisconsin SMR 58
IMG_20170717_204701813.jpg


pickles are held under salt water brine with a dinner plate, 1/2 pint canning jars and the screw top food grade lid while fermenting.
IMG_20170717_204803682.jpg
 
Last edited:

digitS'

Garden Master
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
25,719
Reaction score
28,726
Points
457
Location
border, ID/WA(!)
... remember fishing out a big ole garlic sour dill out of a 55 gallon wooden barrle at the store, when we were kids...
Yes, I remember that. I also remember stealing dog biscuits to snack on at the feed store ;). Aaand, getting into trouble.

Best to be safe.

@aftermidnight , two pickled eggs and a beer was a "traditional" lunch for me on certain college days, when I didn't have time to go home. Yes, money was hard for me to come by, during those years.

:) Steve
liking those teepees
 

canesisters

Garden Master
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
5,684
Reaction score
7,459
Points
377
Location
Southeast VA
This thread got me curious so I googled "CDC - deaths attributed to home canning in 2018" and found this article

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/9/03-0745_article Which gives info for the period from 1990-2000

excerpt:
Events
In the contiguous states and Hawaii, 102 foodborne botulism events occurred, which affected 160 persons; a median of 9 events (range 4–13) and 14 cases (range 4–30) took place per year. The median number of cases per event was 1 (range 1–17). The median age of case-patients in the contiguous states was 50 years (range 4–88 years), and 83 (52%) were female. The overall case-fatality rate was 5%. No clear seasonal pattern was observed.

A food was implicated by laboratory detection of toxin or epidemiologic investigation without laboratory confirmation in 77 (76%) events (
Table 3). Of these events, 68 (67%) were caused by homemade foods. Home-canned foods accounted for 47 (69%) of the homemade food events, affecting 70 people, while other types of homemade foods accounted for the remaining 21 (31%) events, which affected 27 people. Of the nine events caused by nonhomemade foods, five (56%) events, which affected 10 people, were caused by commercial foods, and two (22%) events, which affected 25 people, were caused by restaurant-prepared foods


I thought it was interesting that Alaska was given it's own section while Hawaii was included in the rest of the country.
 

Ridgerunner

Garden Master
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Messages
8,227
Reaction score
10,049
Points
397
Location
Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
The way I break those numbers down that's 160 people over 10 years or an average of 16 a year. If 5% die, that's 0.8 dead people per year.

I looked up the numbers at the CDC a few years back but over a different time span, can't remember the details. It may have been just one or two years. The numbers I came up with were more like 2 people a year actually die thanks to modern medicine. Instead of 5% the death rate used to be closer to 50%. Those that do recover can still have long lasting effects, like weakness.

These numbers are only food borne botulism. They do not include infant botulism or wound botulism, both of those are more prevalent. And this is only botulism. These numbers do not include food borne illnesses like salmonella or e. coli. Proper handling, storage, sanitation, and heat are all tools to make our foods safer.
 

canesisters

Garden Master
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
5,684
Reaction score
7,459
Points
377
Location
Southeast VA
WHAT! Why would there be anything wrong with it?? I'm not a fan of dills, but those are really pretty cukes. How long do they stay in the bucket?

I think that most of us can something. Some of us can EVERYTHING. :lol: If I can stuff it in a jar, it's going in the pressure canner! :gig
 
Top