Food For Long Life: Easy-To-Make Pickled Jalapeño SlicesRefrigerate Or Can

Make your own jars of pickled jalapeño slices. It's easy!

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Harvesting my Peppers
It's been really warm for October here in Northern California and my peppers love it! I'm still harvesting pardrons and my bell peppers are finally turning red and orange. My two little jalapeño plants have quite a few peppers on them too even though I've been picking them off all summer. Since I'm headed out of town with my daughter this weekend to soak up some Vortex energy in the red rocks of Sedona, I decided to harvest the rest of my jalapeños before I leave. (Even if you don't have jalapeños in your garden, it's a great time to buy some at the farmer's market!)

My two little plants still had over a pound of jalapeños.

Two years ago I dehydrated my jalapeños and used them in chili, curry, and anything else that I wanted to spice up.

But this year I thought I'd pickle them. Here's what I did.

* * *

Pickled Jalapeño Slices
[makes 5 half-pint jars]

1 1/4 pounds jalapeños
2 cups filtered water
2 cups while distilled vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons pickling salt*
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon black or rainbow peppercorns
10 small cloves garlic

* You can use any salt as long as it's not iodized and doesn't have anti-caking agents. To determine how much you will need, see the Morton Salt Conversion Chart.

Clean your jars and 2-piece non-reactive lids with hot soapy water. If you are going to keep these in the refrigerator, this will be sufficient. If you are going to can the jalapeños in a hot water bath, follow the instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Wash your jalapeños. Wearing rubber gloves, cut them into 3/8 inch slices. Set them aside.

Bring the water, vinegar, sugar, salt and oregano to a boil, stirring until the sugar and salt completely dissolve.

Meanwhile, divide up the garlic and peppercorns into the 5 half-pint jars.

Place 2 cloves of garlic and 1/5 of the peppercorns in each jar.

When the vinegar solution comes to a boil, stir in the sliced jalapeños and turn off the heat. Make sure each slice is submerged. If you are not going to can them, let them sit in the hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. If you are going to can them, don't do this since they will already be getting heated again for 10 minutes.

Divide the jalapeño slices among the 5 jars using a funnel.Then fill each jar with the vinegar solution up to 1/4 inch to the top of the jar.

Fill the jars with sliced jalapeños and liquid.

At this point, you can screw the non-reactive lids on the jars, let them cool and pop them into the refrigerator until needed. They will last for months if unopened.

If you would like to can them, screw the two-piece non reactive tops on until secure but not too tight. Place them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Remove, let cool on a rack and make sure each top seals and "pops". Then tighten the rims a bit more.