Fermented Food Anyone?

I've made the traditional dill pickles too.  I love canning food, especially when I can get it from my own garden or the Farmer's Market.  There's nothing like a jar of tomatoes in February!  

Tell me about the tomatoes! I usually have enough canned tomatoes to last me through the winter and through when my garden is producing tomatoes or really close, but last summer was rough with the super wet-cold weather through most of June. I actually very recently used up my last can of tomatoes :(

I refuse to buy canned tomatoes, so my recipes until the farmers market is open or until I have my own will be tomato free or made with "fresh" store tomatoes if I must use some. No chili for a while.

Yeah, last summer sucked for tomatoes!  I used up the last of my rhubarb in March, and the chives last month (I freeze both and take them back to Texas with me).  I found both Cherokee Purple and Pink Brandywine tomatoes at Walmart of all places, so I snatched them up quick this year!

Wow, at Walmart! Heirloom tomatoes have gained popularity and those two top the list. I started a bunch of heirloom varieties by seed this year.  I have German Striped (yellow with red), Bloody Butcher (small-medium bright red eaters), Mortgage Lifters (which I guess can grow 4 pound tomatoes good for canning), and Watermelon Beefsteak (big, sweet pink tomatoes that I've grown before, yum).  I also started a Super Sweet Hybird 100 (or something like that cherry tomato). I also get some regular Beefsteak & some Brandywine's from my parents who have a small green house (they used to be veggie farmers and still garden like crazy). She also grows Amish paste, but I don't have room this year, lol.

We bought our 1926 Moorhead house in August 2013, and there are two HUGE well established rhubarb plants along with tons of perennials in the back yard. I used to get some from my parents and the farmers market to freeze and I'm so excited to now have my own plus enough to give away some. I'm probably going to split the plants as they are monsters. They are coming up nicely right now, too. :)

My garden?  It's a 4x4 raised bed, along with a couple of spots around my camper where I dug up the grass and put compost down.  I too have two rhubarb plants, although they're only a couple of years old.  The asparagus I planted 2 years ago did not survive past the first year, which made me very sad.  I planted sugar snap peas last weekend, and will do various lettuces probably today if the weather holds.  

I never seem to have luck with beets or carrots for some reason, but I can get them at the Farmer's Market easily enough.  And my cucumbers "hide" on me - they get so big by the time I see them they're no longer good for pickling!  Let me tell you - canning is a challenge in a camper - I use a camp stove outside to preserve, and the tiny stove inside to make the brine and sterilize the jars.  Which is part of the reason I'm so interested in fermenting - no boiling required!

That's awesome that you have a garden at your camper. I imagine it'd be hard to can in a camper. I know when I do it my large kitchen is scattered with stuff.

Cucumbers do that to you. They grow really fast. Just like zucchini! Those things are crazy!