Getting into Quite a Pickle

I have played around at canning and fermenting in the past.  I would love to try making my own fruit wine.  However, so far all I have made was a single batch of delicious caraway spiced sauerkraut!  In fact I am still eating it this winter!  I am lucky in that no one else in the family so far it quite as excited as I am about it.  My youngest, at 2, thinks anything Mommy is eating must be good so I do have to share with her.

This year I want to get into fermenting in a big way.  I would love some naturally fermented dill pickles, pickled beets, kimchi, homemade rootbeer or ginger beer, pickled carrots, and oh how the list goes on.  I dream of trying out new combinations!  Fermented radishes....combined with?  Fennel....fermented with?  I love the idea of creating both  new flavors and beneficial effects with fermenting.  I would like to try making watermelon pickles this year also!

I have mentioned in earlier blogs that I want to improve on the preserving of our harvest this year.  This includes storing carrots and other root veggies in buckets of sand.  I do not have the ability to create a root cellar at this time and because we garden in the park we cannot store things in the garden.  What strategies work well for you?  This is something I could really benefit learning more about.

I would also like to let some crops go to seed both for sprouting and for seed saving reasons.  I wonder how many radishes I would need to let go to seed to be able to sprout some?  I am sure we could grow plenty of sunflower seeds for sprouting but I wonder if the season is long enough to get broccoli seed?  So much to learn this year.  This is why I love gardening...there is always more to learn!