There are a handful of store bought condiments that are always in my pantry. No matter how easy it sounded when I read Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, I'm not making my own worcestershire sauce. I'm probably not even making my own mustard. There are always pickles, and sometimes they're things that I've just doused in vinegar and sugar and salt and other times they're store bought. And there are always jalapeños, which are very easy to make yourself.

We make a lot of tacos and burritos and nachos and such. It's pretty easy to throw together whatever veg and protein you have on hand, cover it in cheese and call it dinner. We typically add jalapeños to those meals. We make banh mi.* Jalapeños are important.

I had a big bowl of peppers, because my CSA announced it was pepper season and I asked my husband to buy all the peppers. Apparently, he was the rational one and he bought only one large bowl full. Good enough.

I sliced the jalapeños into standard nacho-style rings.

I had 9 jalapeños, which was quite a bit, all sliced up. I sliced but did not photograph about six cloves of garlic. You can leave these whole, and while they won't flavor the peppers that much, they're delicious pickled and not "garlicky" at all. Anyway, toss the garlic in with the peppers.

I also had three cherry peppers, which I chopped into narrow wedges.

Jars with good lids for both, and then the brine. I started Googling the recipes, because I tend to eyeball mine, but since I'm telling you about it, I thought it was best to make sure I was doing it "right."

The very first hit on Google is pretty close to what I do, it's just measured more precisely. Other recipes mix water and vinegar, some skip the turmeric, skip the garlic, add onions, so this is pretty flexible. The only hard part is making sure that you have the right amount of brine for your peppers, and that's going to vary each time you make a batch.

The brine trick --and I think I saw this attributed to Mark Bittman at some point, but I can't find a link-- is to put your jalapeños or whatever you're fridge-pickling into a jar, then fill the jar with liquid. Dump out the liquid and measure it, that's how much brine you need. What I do is significantly less elegant: make just about enough brine, and if it's not enough, add more vinegar.

So the brine is vinegar, salt and turmeric. I tend to do about two cups white vinegar and a teaspoon each of salt and turmeric, and then yeah, if it's not enough, more vinegar.

Bring your brine to a boil, then turn it off and pour it over your peppers.

Let it cool until it feels like your jars won't explode in the fridge, seal it and fridge it. It's food, so you can eat it immediately, but you'd rather wait a day, and if you can handle it, a week.

Here they are after four days. They're softer and more olive colored than on day one. They're a little bit milder, in terms of pure jalapeño heat, but they have that vinegar perkiness that picks up on flavor and amplifies it, so they're milder but still have a lot going on. They'll mellow a bit more in time.

My husband tried one on the world's least innovative nacho (below) and was surprised at their heat, but that's going to vary pepper to pepper and based on how long they've been fridged.

This is very vinegary and should keep for weeks, but if you notice it smells bad or looks fuzzy, it's no longer good.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food.

*About banh mi: Sure, they're easy to make, but a friend of mine brought me some pickled carrots and daikon from Fu Wah in West Philly, and now they're even easier. I had no idea they sold pre-pickled carrots and daikon, but that's the thing that keeps me from making banh mi every day, the pickling of the veg. They sell these little tubs and it's awesome, so if you're looking to make some banh mi, here's a shortcut.

 

(Refrigerator) Pickled Jalapeños

Ingredients

• 9 (or however many you have) Jalapeños


• 2 cups (or more for more, less for less) White Vinegar


• 1 teaspoon Turmeric


• 1 teaspon Sea Salt

Instructions

• Boil the brine ingredients, turn off.


• Slice the peppers and put in a jar with a good lid.


• Cover peppers in brine, let cool a bit, seal and put in fridge.


• Better after 24 hours, even better after a week, keeps for several weeks.

Details

• Prep time: 10 mins


• Total time: 10 mins

Concert at FDR Park

When: Friday, August 10, (rescheduled from Friday, July 27th). Two shifts: 6:30 – 8pm and 8 – 10pm
Where: FDR Park (1800 Pattison Ave near the Phillies & Eagles Stadiums)

Come join the Co-op at FDR Park for its amazing concert series! Just hang out, or, if you'd like to volunteer, you can help us with a Guerilla Gardening workshop. Volunteers will be making Seed Bombs, distributing Co-op information, telling others why you think South Philly needs a co-op, and taking applications. You will be paired with a committee member who can help to answer any questions that arise. We have two shifts for this event and need one volunteer at each. To volunteer, email [email protected].

Join the South Philly Food Co-op for our 2nd Annual South Philly Garden Tour! Help us celebrate your neighbors’ hardworking green thumbs and their efforts to make South Philly greener! Visit backyard gardens and community gardens all while supporting the Co-op! 2nd Annual South Philly Garden Tour Saturday, September 8, 2012 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Check-in begins at 12:30 pm at Urban Jungle (1526 East Passyunk Avenue) to pick up tour map. The Garden Tour is a self-guided ticketed event, and will feature 20 gardens throughout South Philadelphia. Participating gardens will have their doors/gates open for the duration of the event, and will have someone available to greet you, show you around, and answer questions. Following the tour, participants are invited to the Cantina (East Passyunk Ave and Morris St.) for more socializing along with drink specials. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of, and can be purchased now at:

• Urban Jungle, 1526 E. Passyunk Avenue
• Ultimo Coffee, 1900 South 15th St., cash only
• Grindcore House, 1515 S. 4th St.
• Online

If you need additional information, please email [email protected].

Summer must be coming to a close if there's only one more Gold Star Music in The Park event. On August 15, come out and enjoy the last days of summer with the music of East Coastamite, a good-time, get-down, instrumental four-piece preaching the word of 60s-inspired, soul, surf, and organ jazz. Course there will be food too--the Co-op is celebrating with a a potluck. Bring your favorite dish made with at least one local ingredient to share and don't forget to BYOB(lanket). Event begins at 7pm at Gold Star Park on Wharton between 6th and 7th. Sign up to become a member-owner that night and you'll receive $15 in gift cards for the Farm to City farmers markets. And if that's not enough of an incentive, the first 40 people who stop by our table will get a free Little Baby’s ice cream sandwich. See you there!

Once again South Philly Food Co-op is participating in The Energy Co-op's Referral Rewards program. This proved to be a very successful fund raising effort for us last year, earning us $20 for each household who switched their energy supplier over to The Energy Co-op. We also helped to turn dozens of people on to the benefits of a cooperatively owned energy supplier. (Full disclosure: one of those households was my own.) They Energy Co-op is a member-owned, nonprofit cooperative. (Sound familiar?) This means that they operate for the benefit their members, not outside stakeholders or investors. They consist of a member-elected board, paid staff and over 7600 consumers in the five-county area. This year they are opening up the Referral Rewards opportunity to 10 community organizations including your own South Philly Food Co-op. The program will be a little shorter - July and August - so you have a little less time to make your decision.  If you join The Energy Co-op during those months AND mention the South Philly Food Co-op as your referral, The Energy Co-op will donate $20 to us. So if you've already been considering making the switch, just wait a couple more days and be sure to mention us as your referral. And if you've never heard of The Energy Co-op or don't know what it means to switch your electricity supplier, check out their website for more info (but remember... the South Philly Food Co-op sent you there!).

We're kicking off a new Wednesday night series for South Philly Food Co-Op members! Paint your own one-of-a-kind pottery with fellow members and friends at this Shop South Philly partner business. You'll receive 15% off all purchases, with a portion of proceeds going to the Co-Op. Click here to learn more about The Expressive Hand. This is a great event for all ages! The Expressive Hand has two high chairs on location for the youngest Co-op members. The shop is BYOB, so bring your own snacks and drinks (especially if painting a little tipsy is your thing!) The event is free, but space is limited, so RSVP to secure your spot at the table!

It's almost August!  That means...

Dr. Walter I presume

Red tomatoes!  I actually do just presume in the caption above.  I've moved these poor tomatoes around so much that most of the labels are gone.  Oh well.  And if you look closely at the stem above the fruit you can see that it's broken - another casualty of moving.  It's hard to move large tomato plants, especially in a small car.  Let's just say the sunroof came in handy.

Unfortunately, when I was watering the garden today I found an interloper:

this thing was about the size of my index finger

I realize that it is hard to see a green caterpillar against green plants but that's how hard it is to spot these guys.  I only found this one because I was poking around for tomatoes - just goes to show that you should always check your plants under the leaves.  This is a tomato hornworm and it is alarmingly large, eats tomatoes (and eggplants and peppers) and will turn into a moth.  This was the only one I found on any of my plants so  I just pulled it off and threw it into the alley for the birds.

Lastly, I "liked" Greensgrow on Facebook and they told me the other day that it was time to plant carrots for the fall.  Okay!  My friend gave me some homegrown carrots as a housewarming gift and they were delicious.  I mean delicious - sweet and earthy and crunchy.  I just ate them plain and raw they were so good and I didn't want to mar the fresh taste with anything else.  Usually I dip carrots into hummus and they become more of a hummus vehicle but I think homegrown I could just eat them on their own.  I've had some "Little Finger" carrot seeds lying around for over a year now so I finally decided to give them a try.  Fall carrots would be nice!  I also found this helpful post on the Philadelphia County Master Gardeners blog all about what you can plant now for the fall.  I'm going to try a few of these as I figure out my back yard.  It's exciting that spring isn't the only planting time!

...but, well:

that's a tub

You see, the house that I bought has a back yard but it is mostly concrete.  I'm going to dig it up and make it all plants at some point, but my bigger concern right now is fixing things inside the house so, you know, I can live there by the end of the summer.  But my tomatoes were outgrowing their pots and I certainly don't have the money to buy or move any big planters right now and this bathtub was just sitting in the back yard already filled with dirt so...

no judgement in bathtub planting, right?

I planted it!  Rutgers, Copia, Dr. Walter and Jersey Giant tomatoes, sweet yellow stuffing peppers and one lone eggplant in the bottom left corner.  So much space!  You can see that the eggplant and some of the tomatoes were getting quite dry in their little pots - because the tub holds so much more dirt they won't dry out nearly as quickly now.

I'd like to say a word about using household items in gardens.  You may think that with my love of puns I'd think the ubiquitous flower "bed" planted in an old bed frame would be just hilarious.  Bed!  Bed!!  That's some highbrow humor right there, and exactly the type that I normally laugh at so hard I snort.  Somehow, though, in my mind the wonderful pun is overshadowed by the fact that there's A BED IN YOUR GARDEN.  Sorry, that's just too tacky.  And that's how I feel about this, too.

THERE'S A BATHTUB IN MY GARDEN.

DID THE PLUMBER GET CONFUSED?

WHERE'S THE TOILET? [Actually my neighbors have planted things in a toilet bowl right across the fence so that joke doesn't work.  But pretend you didn't know that.]

Okay, okay.  But the aesthete (ha) in me is a little embarrassed to admit that when I first walked out the back door and saw the hideous tub my immediate thought was "What a great planter!" followed closely by "Sarah, don't you turn into one of those people who plants things in old shoes and tires and - shudder - beds."

But I knew that my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant needed more space.  I knew that the tub would have to stay for the time being since it's very heavy and I'd need lots of help to move it.  I knew my money and time were best spent on things inside the house like, uh, real plumbing and a working kitchen.  And before I knew it I had planted the entire tub.

So now my little vegetable garden looks like this:

eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, tree of heaven and a rose

And I'm telling myself that it's okay that I planted the tub because I didn't put it there.  But then again I didn't remove it.  What's that saying about making a choice by not making a choice?  Because for now, at least, I've made the choice to be a person with a bathtub in her garden.

If you've been to any of our events in the past year or so you've probably been captured by the astute lens of the Co-op's unofficial, official photographer, Albert Yee. Albert's work shows up all over the internet and in various publications in the city including the latest issue of Grid which features his black and white power portraits of the mayor's "Green Team." In fact, if you came to this blog through the home page of our website, you were probably greeted by one of my favorite of Albert's photos depicting some of our members having a characteristically good time at an event we had at The Wishing Well (a Shop South Philly business). Well in this article of Philadelphia Weekly (h/t Communications Committee member and member-owner Carolyn Huckabay for pointing this article out), we learn that Albert has decided to take his talents full-time to the world of professional photography. We're just glad to say "we knew him when" and hopefully we can get his autograph on a few of these Co-op pics before he gets all Annie Leibovitz-big on us.

The South Philly Food Co-op's Shop South Philly program continues to grow with the addition of South Philadelphia Community Acupuncture. South Philadelphia Community Acupuncture offers affordable acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. They are located at 1532 E. Passyunk Ave. So stop by for your acupuncture and then take in the peace and quiet of the Singing Fountain! For South Philly Food Co-op members, South Philadelphia Community Acupuncture is offering $5 off every 6th treatment! Please show your member-owner card and thank them for participating in the program. The support of local businesses has been a crucial part in helping the Co-op come as far as it has. We encourage you to become a fan on Facebook of all of our Shop South Philly participating businesses and, more importantly, SHOP at them! Click here to become a fan of South Philadelphia Community Acupuncture on Facebook and click here to follow them on Twitter.