Refrigerator Radish Dill Pickles

Radish Dill Pickles

Early in the CSA season there are an abundance of radishes and greens to use. We eat salads nonstop and even experiment a little. My husband was NOT a fan of the mustard green juice I made :)

The ginger juice did not exactly get a "Woo-hoo" response either. 

Radish dill pickles are a new item to my lineup this year but this is now the third batch I've made. They are super simple to make as they are just refrigerator pickles. This means that I don't process them in any way- no hot water bath, no pressure canning- just good old-fashioned vinegar. I'm going to run through the steps but there will be no exact measurements. If you follow the proportions you'll be able to do this with any quantity of radishes. I had a mixing bowl full and it made 3 pint jars and one small canning jar of pickles.

You will need:
Canning jars, bands & caps
Radishes
Fresh Dill
Kosher Salt
Water
Vinegar- I use white

Soak your radishes in water for 5 minutes to remove any loose debris. Agitate the water with your hand to get dirt off of them. Dump the water and carry the bowl over to your cutting board.

Chop the roots and tops off of the radishes and halve or quarter them depending on their size. I keep a little bowl nearby to put the ends in so I can run them to the compost easily.

If you see any black spots on the outside just slice them off. If the spot is on the inside too discard the radish.

Bring the radishes back over to the sink in the bowl and give them one more rinse. Then pack them into your jars. You want to leave about 3/4" at the top for the dill. Wash your dill and take stalks of it off. Curl them into the top of the jar over the radishes. 

Pour vinegar through the dill until the jars are halfway full. 

Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt on the top of each jar. Fill the jars the rest of the way with water.

I top off the dill at this point. I want a lot of dill flavor so I cram as much as I can fit in there. Once your done cap and band the jars. 

Turn them upside down for about an hour on the countertop so that the dill infuses into the vinegar. After an hour put them into the fridge.

Within an hour of making them the pickles will start turning pink. I try to leave them in the fridge for at least a week before we open them to eat. They keep 3-6 months in the fridge. As a fair warning, radishes make stinky pickles. They taste delicious but they are smelly. 

Homemade Dishwasher Powder & Homemade Laundry Detergent

If you read my blog regularly you've probably figured out that I'm cheap and that I don't think cheap is a dirty word. I'm proud to be cheap. I cut corners where I can so that we can put money in our savings account and take vacations. Also, having a bicoastal shared custody 8 year old becomes expensive. Plane tickets go up every day and the reality is that every flight is $200 more roundtrip if you have to pay an unaccompanied minor fee. Also, in general I like knowing what goes into all of my cleaning products. No mystery gels with "super power blaster beads" for me.
Awhile ago I started making my own laundry detergent. I realized soon after that most of the ingredients could also be used to make dishwasher powder and since I already planned on buying some citric acid for bath fizzies it was a double win. I'm putting these in the same post because I tend to try to make both at the same time so that I can determine whether ingredients need to be restocked.

Homemade Laundry Detergent  (batch costs 1.38= .05/load)
(makes roughly 30 oz)

You will need:
A container for the finished detergent
A box grater

1 cup borax 76 oz box is $4 at my grocery store, .05/oz, 8 oz used= .40
1 cup washing soda 55 oz box is $3.50 at my grocery store, .06/oz, 8 oz used= .48
1 bar Ivory soap (I buy 10/pks when they're on sale for $5 or less- .50/bar) .50

1. Gather ingredients.

2. Find a bored 8 year old to grate your soap. 

Fluffy grated soap. It comes out to about a cup and a half.

3. Add your other ingredients.

1 cup borax & 1 cup washing soda

Use a spoon to squash all the clumps out.

Transfer to your container. Mine is an old Charlies Soap Powder Container.

Shake it up to mix, or find a willing kid. 

Label & store. 

I have a scoop in mine that is a .5oz scoop- so one scoop per load. 

Homemade Dishwasher Powder (cost per batch $3.14- 4.50 depending on water hardness)
(makes roughly 28 oz)

You will need:
A quart size glass jar with a rubber seal - washed out and completely 100% dry
1 cup borax 76 oz box is $4 at my grocery store, .05/oz, 8 oz used= .40
1 cup washing soda 55 oz box is $3.50 at my grocery store, .06/oz, 8 oz used= .48
1/2- 1 c citric acid (use 1 c for hard water) 5 lb tub is $27.14/80oz=  recipe uses 4-8oz-  $1.36-$2.72
1/2 cup kosher salt $3.50 for a 16 oz box- 4 oz used= .90
A container to measure into
A measuring cup
A plastic spoon

1. Gather your ingredients.

2. In your tupperware container mix all of the ingredients- 1/2 cup- 1 cup citric acid (depending on water hardness), 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, and 1/2 cup kosher salt.  It's fairly easy to find borax, washing soda and salt at the grocery store. I purchased my citric acid online. You can find it in stores in small quantities but it's far more cost effective to purchase it in larger quantities through Amazon. 

I use a plastic cup to measure everything. It's a 9oz glass so I fill it close to the top. 

Adding the kosher salt.

After I add all the ingredients into the tupperware I use a plastic spoon to squash any lumps in the powder. Sometimes the borax clumps in the box a bit and I want to make sure that everything mixes evenly. 

3. Transfer the powder to an airtight jar. It is super important that the jar is completely dry. Citric acid clumps if the least little bit of moisture is introduced- your powder will then harden and you will be using a butter knife to chip it out bit by bit (and then if you're me your husband will question whether it is really worth it to make your own dish powder). One trick I have found that works is to put a packet of silica gel (it comes in new shoes) into the container. If you use a needle and thread you can thread through the packet and twist the thread around the hinge on the jar so that the silica hangs above the powder and there's no chance you accidentally dose it into your dishwasher!

The scoop I use is a .5 oz scoop (tablespoon). This means that each load I run costs me .16 (it will be less if you don't have hard water). I also put a bit of vinegar into the rinse aid section of the dishwasher. A tablespoon or so per batch helps make sure the dishes don't cloud. Happy washing!

Starting Seeds

Normally April is seed-starting season for me, because realistically you don't plant anything outside in a home garden in Vermont until Memorial Day. Until then who knows- it might snow! However, with our 80 degree "heat wave" I got the itch to start things early. This was also a great project for the toddler to do with me. She's in her "helping" stage and loved being my assistant.

First things first. Gather many egg cartons. Why? They're free and they're great for planting in. Some folks say they're not deep enough but I just poke holes in the bottom. This way if my plants get too big before it's time to put them outside I just rip the bottoms off so the roots can poke through and I put them in a cardboard flat of soil. The great thing about egg cartons is you can cut them into individual cups when it's time to plant outside and then plant the entire thing since the carton will eventually decompose. Cut the tops off. I save them because I cut toilet paper tubes in half and set them on the flat top of the egg carton to plant cucumbers in, but that'll have to be the subject of another days blog.

My stash.

I poked a little hole in the bottom of each  in case the root pack needs an escape route.

Next, gather your seeds and your soil. I use High Mowing Seeds for a couple of reasons. One they're located only a few towns away from me, their seeds are 100% organic, and they test the lots multiple times to ensure germination. Plus the added benefit of knowing the items will grow in Vermont makes me pick varieties more freely. They also have a great blog and Facebook page so you should check them out! Since we belong to a CSA I tend to grow what I plan on canning or items we eat a lot of. Today we started San Marzano tomatoes (for sauce), cherry tomatoes (to sun dry), basil (I love it!), arugula (an addiction), habaneros & jalapenos (my husband makes hot sauce), and cauliflower (it was cheap & stores well). I'll start cucumbers, pumpkins, and cushaw squash in larger containers this weekend. We'll wait to do root veggies like carrots, onion, and beets outside since they do not transplant well. Potatoes are going in potato towers so those will be done closer to May when it is consistently warmer. 

We use Green Mountain Compost Seed Starter Mix (formerly Intervale Compost), another local Vermont product that is organic. 

After dumping a small amount into a bucket I mixed in some eggshells that I had saved. I find that my plants just come out a little better with the addition of eggshells, plus in the summer once they are planted in the garden the eggshells help prevent slug and snail infestations. 

Soil with eggshells in it.

No here's where my "helper" got involved. We took spoons and she assisted me in filling the egg cartons with dirt. 

Next, I poked little holes in the middle of each egg cup and added seeds.

Add seeds into each cup.

If you tap the carton gently after that the seeds will all get covered with loose dirt. I then add a bit more soil on top.

I had intended to have the little lady help me spray the soil after planting but she fell in love with the spray bottle and ran off with it. 

She figured out how to squirt herself.

This made her very happy (and very wet).

I labeled each carton with a sharpie marker and then also clothespinned the seed packet to it. I place them on boot trays. They're great for when we water the plants and we have an abundance of boot trays that are in use during the winter season and then are not as needed come spring. I set the seedlings on a high windowsill out of the dog and toddlers reach downstairs. It gets very sunny down there during the day.

 

What are you starting for your garden?