So pleased was I with my dill pickles that I decided to try pickling other treats from the garden. Believe it or not, my pickling cookbook happens to include a recipe for jars of carrot and zucchini pickles, of which I have MANY in my deck garden!

I used another recipe from Small Batch Pickling and made three pints of zucchini and carrot pickles. The recipe suggests cutting the carrots into strips, but my homegrown baby carrots look (and taste) so sweet as they are that I just snipped off their greens and extended roots and did the quick blanch.

Here’s the recipe:

Carrot and Zucchini Pickles (for three pints)

• 1 pound freshly plucked baby carrots
• 1 pound zucchini, cut into short strips
• 1 teaspoon pickling salt
• 1 3/4 cups white vinegar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 TBs chopped fresh parsley
• 2 TBs fresh dill
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Begin by preparing the carrots and zucchini.  Blanch the carrots in boiling water for 2 minutes.  Then, drain and transfer the carrots to a large bowl of cold water. Drain the carrots again and combine them with the zucchini. Sprinkle the carrot and zucchini mixture with the pickling salt, and toss to combine.  Let stand for 4 hours.  Rinse twice and drain.

To make the pickling liquid, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, parsley, dill, thyme, and pepper in a saucepan over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring to make sure that the sugar has dissolved.

Once the pickling liquid is prepared, remove the jars from the canner and pack the carrots and zucchini into the jars.  Pour the pickling liquid over the carrots and zucchini, leaving 1/2-inch of head space in each jar. Carefully wipe the rims of the jars and fit them with lids and bands.  Process pint jars in boiling water for 20 minutes. Again, I added an eighth of a teaspoon of Pickle Crisp to each pint jar (though the recipe did not call for it).

And here we go….