A few months ago I made pickled carrots with my very last garden harvest of the season. Taking these tasty morsels to a ladies night recently reminded me I still haven’t posted the recipe. Pickling is one of the easiest things in canning, yet so satisfying and cost efficient if you love pickled goodies. I highly recommend it. If you have that winter canning itch right now then heck, get some carrots from the grocery store to make these bad boys, ain’t no law against that!

This recipe comes from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preservation, with some slight additions to the spices. Remember, you can change the spices to suit your taste, but don’t mess with the vinegar to water ratio of tested recipes.

Ingredients:
5 pounds carrots
6 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
1/2 cup pickling/canning salt
8 cloves garlic
Dill – fresh heads are great if you have it, or seeds
Hot pepper flakes
Mustard seed
Whole Peppercorns

Here’s how it’s done:

Carrots obviously grow underground, so the hardest step is getting them clean. Buying a cheapo nail brush was definitely worth it! Especially if you grew your own and they are caked with mud.

Well hello there good lookin’.

Chop them up into the size you prefer. We did sticks but you can certainly do coins if you prefer. Don’t do them too thin or they can get soggy, but this recipe has a pretty short canning time so they don’t get really soft which is nice.

Prepare the canner, and about 7 or 8 pint jars. While that is heating, combine the vinegar, water and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat.

Grab a hot jar, and add whatever spices you like. I didn’t really measure my spices out, but did a clove or two of garlic per jar, along with a few shakes of dill seed, peppercorns, mustard seed and hot pepper flakes (around a half teaspoon of each). Combine whichever flavours you like the best. If you have fresh dill, do two heads per jar. Then pack in the carrots nice and tight, and pour in the hot vinegar mixture, leaving a half inch head space. Remove any bubbles trapped between the carrots. Wipe rims, place lids on the jars and tighten the bands finger tip tight.

Place the jars in the canner, ensuring they are covered by at least 1-2 inches of water. Bring to a full rolling boil and process for 10 minutes. When the ten minutes in up, turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes and remove the jars to a towel or hot pad. mmm mmm pickled carrots. Wait 12-24 hours for them to cool, remove the bands, check the seals, label and store. Wait a few weeks for the full pickled goodness to permeate the carrots, then enjoy.

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