Pickling our Carrots

This post is about how I pickled our carrots for better preservation.

We had an abundant yield of multi-hued carrots from our previous experiment with companion planting. I gave a lot of them away, and still had more than I could possibly eat. Carrots like most other vegetables have a shelf life, and to preserve the vast quantity we had accrued I had to find ways to extend thier life span. Pickling and fermentation are age old methods of preservation, and I used two simple recipes for our carrots.

This recipe is simple to make and requires very few ingredients. The art of pickling is a little more complex however as it takes time for the flavour to develop. It takes some trial to find a flavour profile that tastes good and matures well. Any number of spice combinations can be used in creating a pickle you like. I decided to use ginger and garlic as they're a well known combination used in a lot of Indian food. The garlic flavour got more intense with time and had to be countered with more ginger and carrot pieces. The pickle turned out a little tangier than I'd liked but still tasted good and kept the carrots fresh months after they were pickled.

After I'd made a few sample pickles and identified the best tasting batches, I left a jar in a local shop to display what is possible and generate interest in uncommon vegetables like our purple carrots. I felt a certain measure of pride and happiness seeing our jar of pickled carrots nestled amongst the produce of other local farmers.

This recipe utiles fermentation to provide a product where the brine used to preserve
the carrots is also delicious to consume. Fermentation also has a lot of health benfits associated with it due to the probiotics in the pickle. It takes a while for the fermentation to happen depending on the climate. It can happen in a few days in warmer weather and take a couple of weeks in colder climates. Referigeration stops the fermentation process from happening but keeps the micro-organisms intact.Again, any number of combinations can be used to create a flavour profile that suits your pallette. I'd left a sack of carrots behind when I visited home and my mom turned them into this pickle using the described method.

These method kept our carrots edible for months after they were harvested.I'm still a novice at pickling and it will take a lot more practice to identify and implement the best flavour combinations. I was still happy with our initial results and will definitely be tinkering with pickles again for our next harvest.

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Great job on preserving the carrots!

Thanks, it was a nice foray into the world of pickling.

Excellent! Purple fermented carrots...I love it. Bookmarking this post @soulturtle I want to try this recipe... thinking about that I never tried the kimshi recipe you had up a while back. I will now though.

What was the turn out for the jar you left in a store?

They're both rather simple to do, they just need a little patience. Let me know how it goes if you try.

I left it at the store mostly to draw attention to purple carrots. A few people showed interest according to the shopkeeper but I wasn't really selling them at the time.

Yeabthat's what I thought, on the shelf to raise awareness sort of.

You had to say "if I try it"... ! I guess I really have to try it now.

Thanks!

Have mainly fermented cabbage and cucumbers. Will try your recipes. 🦋

Both great vegetables to ferment. I love that any fermented product can be customized to your taste. I've got a lot of new combinations to try too.

Hey soul you reminded me of calling my mom and tell her prepare some "gajjar ka aachar" 😋

Haha, mom made pickles are the best.

Fermented foods are the best. Make some kimchi! It's so easy to make and even easier for when you're lazy to cook coz you can just throw it together with some rice or tofu or other veg. And I'm sure you can grow your own cabbage to do it too.

Haha, you're in Kimchi land! I envy your choices of Kimchi. I actually tried making a version of kimchi with grated carrots. They weren't as good as cabbage and dissolved into gloop pretty soon. A friend rescued it though by turning it into chilli sauce that we enjoyed with homemade burritos.

Rofl. I'll give you a great recipe.

I'm now eating kimchi for breakfast, lunch and dinner and enjoying every bit of it.