A Lotta Squash

Sometimes this summer it has seemed a little overwhelming--what, more basil! Ackk, four cucumbers? Wait, sixteen pears--or nine squash, as was the case for a full share last Saturday. There also seems to be a somewhat endless stream of eggplant coming in these days.

When you have a lot of any one produce, you want to think of different things to do with it, and if possible, ways to preserve some of it for future eating. With the nine squash that arrived at our house last Saturday, I made more zucchini bread (it freezes very well), and I made a nice squash and bacon and cheese and eggs fry-up to put over spaghetti and sliced tomatoes, a favorite around here. But there were still a lot of squash left. Angie had mentioned seeing a recipe for pickled baby pittypat squash, so I thought I'd check out pickling squash in general, and I found that it's a common thing to do.

I adapted a recipe I found and made a big batch (two quart jars), and it's pretty tasty stuff. As Dave proved by making delicious dill refrigerator pickles last week, you don't have to follow recipes to the letter; he changed the herbs and spices for bread and butter pickles to make a dill pickle instead. So, for the following recipe, the "pickling spices" it calls for are up to you--decide if you want sweeter, or more dill, or something completely different.

Pickled Squash

8-10 cups sliced summer squash, zucchini, pittypat squash, or a mixture (you can peel it or not, your choice)
2 cups sliced onions
kosher salt
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spices (such as mustard seeds, cardoman, cinnamon, bay leaf, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (dried from last year or store bought)

In a large pot or bowl, layer the sliced squash and onions, sprinkling each layer with kosher salt. Let stand for 1 hour, then drain well. Then, in a large pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, pickling spices, and red pepper and bring to a boil. Add the squash and onions, and bring to a boil again. Divide the vegetables into sterilized canning jars and pour enough of the brine into each jar to come to 1/2" from the top of the jar. Wipe the jar rims clean, put on the lids and rings, and process in hot water bath for 10 minutes to seal. If any jars don't seal properly, the pickled squash will still keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.