How to pickle your garden harvest of peppers, cucumber and even watermelon

By Jessica Damiano The Associated Press It s September and I still haven t harvested a single red tomato The beets are still grape-size and so far my four plants have produced only two zucchini But the green beans They re suddenly coming in faster than I can eat them Related Articles A fiesta of flavor for Hispanic Heritage Month Fend off the cool weather with buttery clams A one-dish meal that is more than the sum of its distinct parts Got a leftover chicken Soup for you simple yet sensational summertime recipes from NBC s Yes Chef show winner I ve blanched and frozen several bags for fall and winter and in the interest of variety have just pickled a batch As a lifelong gardener I m no longer surprised by annual harvest fluctuations A sparse years back my plants yielded a single bean which I comically steamed salted and cut four methods to split with my family It was delicious but not worthy of pickling unfortunately This year however my tomato deficiency is offset by an embarrassment of bean riches Since I don t have the patience for pressure canning I do all my pickling the quick-and-easy way - in the refrigerator Besides pickling I preserve bulk of my herbs and vegetables by drying or freezing them How to pickle your harvest The easiest way to do this is to reuse the brining liquid from a just-finished jar of purchased pickles I exclusively wash and pat-dry the beans then place them in the pickle juice and return the jar to the refrigerator With this shortcut you ll be enjoying tasty pickled green beans in just hours and they ll remain crispy for up to a month You can even use the brine one more time to make a second batch There are plenty of other uses for the tasty liquid too such as in pickle martinis but I digress If you don t have leftover brine it s easy to make your own Boil cups each of water and distilled white vinegar with tablespoons of kosher salt and tablespoon of pickling spices in a nonreactive pot stainless steel is best Sugar is optional I don t use it but feel free to include several if you like sweeter pickles Turn off the heat when the salt and sugar if using are fully dissolved Next add - sprigs of dill - crushed garlic cloves and a pinch of red pepper if desired to a clean sterilized quart-sized Mason jar Pack the jar tightly with the whole trimmed beans then pour in the vinegar response leaving inch of headspace at the top of the jar Allow it to cool at room temperature before covering and refrigerating Fresh-made brine can be reused twice for a total of three batches Cucumbers and beyond Of program if you re a purist these methods can also be used to make refrigerator-pickled cucumbers Slice cucumbers into wedges or quarter-inch rounds or use whole pickling cucumbers such as kirbys and proceed as above if using whole cukes cut off their blossom ends but leave their stem ends intact If you re feeling adventurous you can pickle all sorts of other fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator Try it with asparagus beets end-of-season green tomatoes cut into wedges or sweet or hot peppers as Peter Piper did You can even pickle cherries peach slices and watermelon rinds a southern delicacy that in the past few days made a surprisingly tasty snack for this northerner Keep the salt vinegar and water but feel free to adjust the seasonings and spices as you wish For instance I include sugar when pickling fruit and swap the pickling spices for ginger cinnamon or cloves All sorts of pickle-inspired foods from chips to gummy candies have been gaining popularity lately but there s nothing better than the real thing And with so countless flavor variations to experiment with all you have to do is follow your taste buds Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter