Calling all Bloody Marys!!! Your ultimate garnish has arrived!
Easy and quick!! All you need is a helpful local farmer to bring in their dewy fresh spears on a spring morning so they can be preserved at their peak moment. This absolute freshness is why they stay crunchy even after pickling and processing. Supermarket asparagus will never be acceptable. Let there be no wimpy, soggy, flimsy asparagus pickles, oh hell no!!!!
Into the big, cold wash, separating the super skinny spears from the more substantial spears. The skinny spears make great eating but lousy pickles, so save the skinny ones for roasting or steaming, for soup, or even freezing, but don’t pickle them.
Sterilize quart jars, lids and screw tops in your dishwasher or stovetop. Begin trimming spears so that they are perfectly sized to stand in a quart jar with about 1/4 inch head space.
Here is a tip/trick: line up the tips of your spears on the cutting board and make a mark on the board at a snidge more than 5 1/2 ". That is the perfect size for uniform spears in a quart jar leaving the necessary 1/4" head space.
I like to set my herbs and spices up into small bowls ahead of time for easily popping into sterilized jars:
Start a water bath pot for processing. Start a large deep pot with 50% white vinegar and 50% water. Bring to a simmer. For a full lug, 25 lbs, I used 2 gallons of vinegar, yielded 20 quarts.
Fill each quart jar with the following spices and herbs:
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon dill seed (I use frozen dill heads from the season before, but that’s just me. They look so pretty. Just are not in season yet. Seed will work fine.)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Pack the asparagus spears tightly but without crushing them. Ladle the hot vinegar solution into the jars, wipe the rims, seal, and water bath in boiling water for 15 minutes.
Thank you local farmers!!! ❤️❤️❤️👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
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