The May cold pack challenge is over and it’s time to round-up our results. This challenge wasn’t as popular as those in past months, which I sort of expected. Cold pack preserving isn’t as exciting as some of the other skills we’ve tackled, and for lots of you, it was hard to find good seasonal produce which was appropriate for cold packing. Perhaps it wasn’t the best choice for May. Live and learn!
This month, just 92 people submitted their finished projects. Asparagus was the most popular ingredient to cold pack (which is appropriate since it was in season in many parts of the country in May). Other popular varieties of produce last month were Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, green beans, jalapeños, okra, red onion, and tomatoes.
From the data that you all reported this month, it looks like most of you weren’t moved to make more than one batch. However, from the optional comments, it sounds like a lot of you are looking forward to trying out this skill later in the season when there’s more that’s appropriate for cold packing.
One thing that I found interesting was that many of the participants felt mixed towards cold packing at the start of the challenge. Which I get. It’s not one of the sexier food preservation skills.
Happily, those of you who tried it seemed to shift to the more positive end of the spectrum by the end of the month. Which is always what I’m hoping for!
Here’s hoping that the June jam challenge will appeal to a larger swath of folks and that our participation numbers will be back up in the next month!
Veg
- Pickled Brussels Sprouts – BLDRNRPDX
- Two Pints of Pickled Brussels Sprouts – Knit at Nite
- Spicy Pickled Green Beans – Thoughts and Reflections
- Single Pint Spicy Pickled Green Beans – First Things First
- Pickled Asparagus (and some cold pack berries) – KT Cool
- Cocktail Onions & Pickled Asparagus – Merry Meeting Menus
- Dilly Beans – My Bit of Earth
- Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns – Sustainable Maine
- Pickled Garlic – Brit in the South
- Crunchy Dill Pickles – Cooking with Mary and Friends
- Carrot Cauliflower Pickles – My Imperfect Kitchen
- Pickled Pearl Onions – The Pit Stop BBQ
- Spicy Pickled Asparagus – East of Eden Cooking
- Pickled Radishes and Fennel – Jarla!
- Pickled Pink Turnips – Bubble Tea for Dinner
- Serrano Dilly Beans – Grace Lee
- Pickled Lemon Cukes – Casula Mellita
- Home Grown Pickled Asparagus – Subcultural Farmgirl
- Dilly Beans – Jeanne-Marie Hagan
- Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles – Heidi Graham
- Pickled Rhubarb – Uncanny Preserves
- Small Batch Cucumber Pickles – Laurie Kane
- Bread and Butter Pickles – KelKerr
- Pickled Asparagus Spears – Jersey Knitter
- Hot Garlic Asparagus Pickles – Lynne Curry
- Pickled Asparagus with Toasted Curry Spices – Prospect the Pantry
- Cold Pack Pickled Green Tomatoes – Maura Sharp
- Pickled Purple Asparagus – Ikebana Girl
- Pickled Carrots and Asparagus – Victory Canning
- Honey Pilsner Pickles – Purlewe An
- Dilly Beans – Raya Samet
- Honey, Garlic, and Cumin Pickled Peppers – Jen Carr
- Carrot and Daikon Slices and Spears – Will Graves
- Spicy Garlic Dilly Beans – Southern Fried Yankees
Fruit
- Bottled Guavas – Tandy Sinclair
- Portioned Tomato Sauce – The Scholarly Redneck
- Cherries in Red Wine Syrup – Morsels & Sauce
- Cold Packed Clementines – Muffin Lady
- Anti-Gravity Apricots – Cathy Kempf
- Pickled Cherries – Stephanie Beauchamp
- Sweet Pickled Cherries – Susie Bares
- Pickled Pineapple Two Ways – My Savory Spoon
- Cinnamon and Clove Pickled Asian Pears – Celeste
Even though I participated in the early challenges, I’m not getting the posts with any regularity. I missed April entirety and was thrilled to get May’s wrap up newsletter. Have loved this whole”challenge ” and wish I received all the posts. Am definitely going to try the cocktail onions.
Jill, I’m doing my best. Remember that I’m just one person managing this on top of a whole host of other commitments.
I thought about doing this one, but as you correctly surmised, I typically do a lot of cold pack stuff later in the summer – peaches, hot peppers, tomatoes….. plus, I feel like this is a canning skill that I am already comfortable with. Looking forward to June jams – already have my first batch of strawberry in the pantry.
I am enjoying the challenge . I have experience in canning so the challenge keeps me motivated to try new things. I would like to see your wonderful list of links related to the monthly challenge posted earlier rather than at the end so we can try some of them! Thanks for hosting this challenge!