Pickling Carrots

I got rained out today at the Phoenixville Farmer's Market - YEA! We needed rain in the worst way. I rescheduled the Baby Quilt Challenge Sale for Calico Cutters Quilt Guild for next Saturday - hopefully the weather will cooperate.

What to do on a rainy day??? Pickle carrots - remember I "over-purchased" carrots at the market 2 days ago. I found a great recipe for pickled carrots from David Lebovitz. I made only one addition to David's recipe as printed. Here are my carrots, peeled and ready to go. These carrots were deliciously sweet even before the pickling process.

I started with about 2 1/2 pounds of carrots and ended up with about a pound and a half after trimming and peeling. I cut the carrots into uniform sizes so they would fit nicely into the jar.

The carrots receive a one minute blanch, and are then submerged in the pickling liquid.
Here's my recipe alteration - if you read David's post he talked about having ginger sugar on hand and was going to use it in his picked carrots - his recipe does not mention this. I thought the addition of ginger sounded great, but I have no idea where to get ginger sugar. Improvise - I added about 1/4 cup of thinly sliced candied ginger to the pickling liquid.

My 1 1/2 pounds of carrots yielded 2 pint jars of pickled carrots - aren't they beautiful? They taste great! These carrots are not heat processed, not "canned". They will hold for up to two months in the fridge - believe me, in my house they won't last 2 weeks. One is going to be gifted to a friend - I'll wrap her's with the gorgeous veggie ribbon, mine is tied up with rick rack. We're going to need to have a tea towel conversation very soon - I buy all of my tea towels from a lovely woman, Ellen - they are handwoven, and everyone of them is a work of art. And sturdy - I've had some of my tea towels for over 10 years and they look like new. I need to introduce you to Ellen sometime soon.

Tonight for fun my husband and I headed to West Chester for the Iron Hill Twilight Criterium - a bike race - WHAT FUN!!! This was the start of the professional level race - I could not believe how fast they were moving. What a fun night!
We're having friends for dinner tomorrow - the menu is great - I'll put my daughter in charge of getting photographs as I never remember to snap pics when I'm busy entertaining. Promise to re-visit framing ideas Monday.