Garden to Table: Summer Pickling Recipes

Basic Fermented Dill Pickle

Makes one half gallon container

Ingredients:

• Cucumbers – about 2 pounds

• Garlic – a few cloves

• Dill – fresh

• Spices – fennel, peppercorns, mustard seeds, celery seeds, coriander, allspice, or any combination of your choice!

• 3% Salt Brine (7 grams of salt to one cup of water, ideally non-chlorinated) – enough to cover and keep pickles submerged.

• 2-3 Bay or Grape leaves

Method:

Combine in jar and attach airlock, or just keep pickles submerged. Keep at around 78 degrees. Will be done in 3-5 days, but can be fermented longer–usually up to 14 days.

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Refrigerator Pickles

Makes one half gallon container

Ingredients:

• Cucumbers – about 2 pounds

• Garlic – a few cloves

• Dill – fresh

• Spices of choice

• 1 ½ cups water

• 1 ½ half cups rice wine vinegar

• 4 tablespoons sugar or maple syrup

• 3 bay leaves or grape leaves

Method:

Combine liquids with sugar and salt until dissolved. Cut cucumbers as desired. Place spices, garlic, dill, bay/grape leaves and cucumbers in jar. Cover with liquid and place in fridge. Will be ready in 1 hour. Consume within 1-2 weeks.

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Refrigerator Bread & Butter Pickles

Ingredients:

5-6 cups sliced cucumbers

• 1 ½ tablespoons Kosher Salt

• 1 cup Onion or Leek

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup white vinegar

• ½ cup apple cider vinegar

• ¼ cup light brown sugar

• 1 ½ teaspoons mustard seeds

• ½ teaspoon celery seeds

• ⅛ teaspoon turmeric

Method:

Combine sliced cucumbers with salt. Chill for 1-2 hours, then rinse and drain well. Combine with onion and place in jar. Combine sugar and the remaining ingredients over medium heat until dissolved. Pour hot mixture over cucumbers and onion. Cool at room temperature for 1 hour and refrigerate. Will be ready in 24 hours.

Consume within 1-2 weeks.

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Pickled Red Onions

Ingredients:

• Red onions

• Spices

• Vinegars

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3 bay leaves

• ½ c hot water

Method:

Mix spices, sugar, salt and bay leaves with hot water in jar. Add onions. Add vinegars to cover. Shake to distribute liquids and spices evenly. Place in fridge. Enjoy over the course of a few days.

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The Out-of-Favor Native Persimmon Tree Has a Rich History in Florida

How poorly did Hernando de Soto and his fellow conquistadores think of Florida upon arrival? Well, simply put, Florida’s dreadful flora and fauna made founding states like Massachusetts and Virginia look tame in comparison.

The fruit of the native persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana) contributed to this unpleasant experience, evoking passionate responses in an account from the very first Florida expedition. The astringency of the unripe persimmon caused mouths to turn and lips to pucker, but first impressions are not everything.

Persimmons constituted a cultural catchall, as they were used by Native Americans, consumed by early English, French, and Spanish settlers, and then utilized for furniture, booze, candies, breads, coffee, and even golf clubs.

A Southern staple

The native persimmon was a Southern staple and remained a symbol of the South until the end of the 19th century, which brought the introduction of the much preferred Japanese persimmon. Most folks now consider the native persimmon – a fruit tree with an abundance of cultural, culinary, and medicinal properties – a nuisance. So, what are we missing about the native persimmon?

The native persimmon’s growth ranges from about 20 to 100 feet tall and 25 to 35 feet wide, depending on its genetics, soil types, and sunlight. The tree tolerates varying moisture conditions. A member of the ebony family, the wood is dark, but also quite hard and heavy.

The dark green oval leaves turn a beautiful burnt orange or brick red color in the fall before shedding entirely. Only female trees bear fruit and multiple nearby trees increase the yield. Bright orange fruit hangs from the barren tree in the late fall and early winter. The native persimmon’s upright growth habit and checkered bark, resembling alligator skin, make it an attractive addition to any landscape.

Medicinal properties of choke-fruit

Persimmon likely comes from the Algonquian word pos, meaning choke, and the suffix from men, meaning fruit. Quite literally: choke-fruit. Indigenous people ate the fruit fresh, dried, and incorporated into bread loaves which they served to settlers.

Indigenous children and adults entertained themselves with a game that used persimmon seeds like dice. Highly sought after for its medicinal properties, different parts of the persimmon tree treated multiple maladies including fever, dropsy, diphtheria, and venereal diseases.

The astringency of the fruit made it a valuable antiseptic in the treatment of wounds. Some made syrups, vinegar, inks, and dyes from persimmons. Inventive Americans, from immigrant entrepreneurs to industrious enslaved families, brewed persimmon beer, wine, and brandy.

During the Civil War, Southern citizens used persimmon seeds for their buttons and their morning brews. Wartime blockades limited Southerners’ access to coffee and put coffee lovers of the South in dire straits. Out of desperation, they roasted persimmon seeds instead of coffee beans.

Newspapers reported that long-time coffee drinkers noted little difference in flavor. Woodworkers valued the persimmon for its weight and hardiness. Persimmon wood could be found at the head of a golf club, a gun stock, mallet, or chisel handle.

Prized by wildlife

Wild animals, above all, prized the plentiful persimmon – birds, squirrels, and bears, oh my. You might still hear some folks refer to persimmon trees as “possum wood,” and for good reason.

Raccoons and opossums, in particular, descended (and ascended) upon the persimmon fruit. People frequently found the furry bandits climbing up their persimmon trees, so much so that multiple folk songs recalled the sight. Here is one excerpt from an old field song:

Possum in a ‘simmon tree,

Raccoon on de groun’,

Raccoon ask de possum

To shake dem ‘simmons down.

This sight and the sight of the persimmon tree, altogether, began to lessen though. Just as de Soto and company encountered the “New World” and its new foods, the great plant and food exchange worked both ways.

By the 20th century, increased trade and transportation opened Americans’ access to more favored fruit trees, relegating the persimmon to a minor fruit unable to soar to the heights of apples and oranges. In addition, the New World traded its native persimmon for the Japanese persimmon.

The native persimmon tree still persists in the landscape of the Southeast, and, I hope, will return to prominence once again. The next time you need to plant a tree, consider taking home a living piece of history with the purchase of a native persimmon.

Jenna Noel Pope is the herb, vegetable, and social media manager at Native Nurseries. She holds a Bachelors and Masters in History from FSU.

Seek and Destroy Skunk Vine in Your Yard

Skunk vine is more noticeable when it is flowering. Photo by Chris Evans, University of Illinois, Bugwood.org.

Skunk vine (Paederia foetida) is an invasive vine that is spreading rapidly in Leon County. In a computer search of skunk vine, I found excellent Tallahassee Democrat articles written by UF/IFAS volunteer writers in the past, including Karen Rose in 2015 and Connie Bersok in 2017, as well as a thorough description with photos and solutions from UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. This article is a reminder that this aggressive, twining perennial vine continues to lurk in our yards, park woodlands, and natural areas. Seek and destroy! Here is how.

First, sharpen your observation skills. Look around your yard for a vine with oppositely arranged leaves on long stems, up to 30 feet long that twine up shrubs and trees or along the ground. When you crush the leaves, you will detect a bad smelling stench (hence the name). When young, these vines are easy to overlook, as their green leaves blend in with the vegetation of the unsuspecting shrub or tree that it climbs. The leaves are pointy but may vary in size and shape. Each leaf is on a short petiole. I have found it winding through our azaleas and trying to cover our coonties. It is easiest to control when it is in this stage.

Try to find and remove skunk vine before it has time to make flowers and seed, as in this photo. Photo by Chris Evans, University of Illinois, Bugwood.org.

Second, untwine the vine from reachable vegetation and follow it back to the ground where you may be able to dig out its roots. If in a tree, pull the vine from the tree or cut it and then follow the vine to where the root is.

Third, carefully dispose of plant remains by bagging and placing in the trash. Skunk vine can spread vegetatively from stems that remain on the soil or by seed, which is probably spread by birds. Do not compost any of the plant. Do not place debris in a brush pile.

Fourth, if you cannot trace the plant back to its roots, pile the vine that you have pulled from a tree and spray it with an herbicide like Round-up while still connected to its roots. The leaves will absorb the herbicide and carry it down to the roots. Follow label instructions. Be careful of nearby vegetation. Herbicide treatment is more effective during the growing season, late spring and summer.

Skunk vine is more noticeable when it is blooming. It sports small tubular, light grayish pink or lilac flowers with red centers. If you see it in bloom, act fast because those multiple flowers will soon be producing abundant fruit that is small, spherical, and shiny brown, each containing two black seeds. They hang in clusters. A single large vine produces thousands of seeds in a single growing season. Remember to bag and discard those clusters of small brown fruit.

The flowers of a single large skunk vine can produce thousands of seeds in a single growing season. Photo by Peggy Greb, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org.

Why is this important? Skunk vine, native to Asia, was brought to Florida in 1897 as a potential fiber crop and was soon reported to be a ‘troublesome weed’. It is now listed on the Florida Noxious Weed List by the Florida Department of Agriculture, which means it cannot be sold, grown, imported, or transported. Too late! In 1993 it was labeled a Category I invasive species, which means that it is altering native plant communities by displacing native species or changing community structures or ecological functions, resulting in documented ecological damage.

Skunk vine, if not controlled, will eventually engulf native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Its dense layer of leaves prevents sunlight from reaching the leaves of native plants. Our yards and natural areas begin to lose biodiversity as they are covered by skunk vine and other invasive vines such as Japanese climbing fern, English ivy, Asiatic jasmine, cat’s claw vine, Chinese wisteria, and others. With the loss of diversity of native vegetation, we lose the diversity of native insects which cannot digest plants that evolved in another part of the world. Less diversity in insects means less diversity in birds and other wildlife.

Protect the plants in your yard from skunk vine. Learn to recognize it while it is young for easy removal. Keep it from spreading into your neighbor’s yard and into our parks and natural areas. Seek and destroy!