Happy 2013 -  I am going to try and make a concentrated effort to blog more frequently this year.  There are a couple of things I have been experimenting with from the garden.  First, as usual for January, I find a surplus of daikon radish.  I really like the Japanese style pickles so I thought I would try to pickle some daikon's and carrots.  Since I had some leftover pickling juice I also cut up some beets and pickled them too.  They look so pretty in the jars and they taste wonderful.  It is also a pretty guilt free snack after all the excesses from the holidays.  Adding the coriander and mustard seeds was a tip from my fellow Green Corn Borad member Carla.

Easy Pickled Daikon and Carrot

1 cup water
1/2 cup Japanese rice vinegar or 
1 tsp five spice powder
2½ tsp sea salt
5 tbsp sugar
½ tsp peppercorns
1 bay leaf

3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds


Carrots - cut into 2-3 inch large julieanne sticks -  use the french fry sliced if you have a mandoline
Daikon Rafish -  cut same size as carrots
1 fresh chilli sliced

Heat the first set of ingredients until the salt and sugar is disolved.

Add the peppers, carrots and daikon into a large jar and cover with the pickling liquid..  If you have a large mason jar with a lid this works.  I reuse jars so I just grab some .  Depending on how many jars and carrots and daikon you have you can adjust how much liquid you will need to pickle.    The amounts here are enough for one large jar.  I just store the jar in the refrigerator and it should be good for 2 weeks.  Pickles are ready after 2 days.

Picture is what is left of our daikon crop in this years garden