Lots of pickles but no cucumbers yet.

When I was a kid, pickles meant pickled cucumbers. Even pickled beets weren't really considered pickles. But now when I think of pickles, my mind races with the possibilities.

The sugar snap pea vines are producing like mad.  We pick in the morning and by the next evening the vines look loaded again.  Monday I prepared a batch of Pickled Sugar Snap Peas from Linda Ziedrich's The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition: 250 Flavor-Packed Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market.  The directions say to let them set in the fridge for 2 weeks but DS and I tried them last night (barely 24 hours) and they're tasting pretty good. Maybe they'll last long enough to try them at the proper time or maybe they won't.

Tuesday, while DH and DS went on another hike with the WILD GUYde, Lester Zook, and some other homeschoolers, I took advantage of the morning spent in Harrisonburg.  Besides the usual stops at the downtown library and A World of Good thrift store, I went by  a Taste of Thai's food market to pick up a few groceries. 

I bought lots of bean sprouts because I planned to make Ziedrich's Vietnamese Pickled Bean Sprouts plus Bean Sprout Salad in Outrageous Dressing, a great summer salad that becomes a main dish when I add cold cooked chicken or shrimp.  After setting on the counter overnight, the fermenting bean sprouts look like this and, after another day or two at room temperature, the taste will be pretty mild.  Makes them a good accompaniment to spicy or rich foods.

I cut up the last of the garden's daikon radishes for another fresh pickle so the refrigerator's full for the time being.  The beets are ready in the garden but I think I still have plenty of beet pickles canned and on the shelf from last year so they'll probably be prepared some other way.  DS and I like them steamed and plain but I might try something different to tempt DH.