Pickling Peppers

Question

I want to pickle the banana peppers, jalepenos and bell peppers from my garden. I have a small sandwich bag full of banana peppers so far, but no more than that. Is it okay to store them in the fridge until I have more ready to pickle or should I go ahead and do something with them? Can I freeze them while I wait?

Answer 1

It depends how long you will need to store them.

A couple days in the fridge won't effect them much. After three or four days they will start to go limp. In my experience, limp, un-fresh veggies make terrible pickles.

I wouldn't freeze them. In general freezing will keep them good for a long time but they will still be a little limp when they are thawed and the pickles won't be as good.

I have dealt with the problem of small yields by preparing a whole batch of pickling brine and putting it in a pitcher in the fridge (carefully labeled to prevent surprises). Then you can very easily make a 1 jar batch of pickles without losing much time. Do water bath processing in a smaller pot that will still contain the jar.

Answer 2

Similar to the response above, with a small amount of peppers you could just make refrigerator pickles and skip canning them. I do this often with onions/shallots - just throw in a jar with vinegar, salt and a bit of sugar (optional) and put it in the fridge. Wait a week and then enjoy. They'll last for weeks like this (haven't tested exactly how long b/c they always disappear before going bad), and are generally crisper than if they've been through a water bath.