Pickled Red Cabbage & Peppers! Canning the harvest of a Maine Homestead...

Harvest is in full swing here at the Smith Family Homestead! With that being said I am always looking for different flavorful ways to preserve our vegetables for this fall and winter! Our family loves pickles of all different varieties and our cabbage numbers were high this season so I decided to try a pickled cabbage recipe. The recipe also calls for peppers which we have some to use up so it worked out great, my husband loves spicy so I made two seperate batches, one with regular bell peppers and one with jalapenos.

I must say the jalapenos are definately strong enough this year, my hands were burning and I was coughing while cutting them....haha!!! Sooo my first step was to go out into the garden and pick a nice big red cabbage, bell peppers and hot peppers. After bringing them in I washed them, then I cut the cabbage in quarters and thin sliced it as you can see from the pictures, the peppers were thin sliced as well. Then comes the salting process which is important so they will come out crispy and not mushy in the jars. You take 1/4 cup of pickling and or kosher salt and put it in a large bowl with the cabbage and peppers, toss the vegetables with the salt until well coated. Put the bowl in a cool and place and let is sit for 6-8 hours, this will allow the excess liquid within the vegetables to come out and cause them to crisp when pickled, do not skip this step believe me it makes all the difference. This gives you time to sanitize your jars and get them ready for canning. After your salting time is up rinse the cabbage and peppers atleast three times with fresh cold water to get the excess salt off. Drain them well and then pack it into your prepared jars, make sure to push down while packing the jars to get the most into each jar possible. Add 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seed and 1/2 teaspoon of pickling lime on top of each jar. After you have your jars all packed move onto making your brine, the recipe is below. You will bring the brine to a boil in a pot on the stove and then ladle it into each jar, remove all excess bubbles and put your lids and rings on. Then process in a waterbath canner for 20 minutes for quart jars or 15 minutes for pint jars. After you are all done with the canning process store them in a cool dark place and you can enjoy them in about 3 weeks. I know this doesn't matter to some but they are beautiful on the shelf of your canning pantry!

Here is the recipe:

1 medium sized head of red cabbage

3-4 peppers (depending on size)

1/4 cup canning and or kosher salt (for salting the veggies)

1/2 teaspoon mustard seed (per jar)

1/2 reaspoon pickling lime/pickle crisp (per jar)

Brine:

6 cups white vinegar

4 cups white sugar

Depending on the size of your vegetables, you may have leftover brine or you may need to make more. With this recipe I just cut up the amount of cabbage and peppers that I need to process and just keep making more brine as needed. I hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I do and happy harvest canning!

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I purchased this Ninja set up last year and it is helpful in all food processing aspects!