As I note this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, in my world, spring means pickling workshops. I’m offering two free workshops in the upcoming week: a virtual presentation and demonstration on March 6 and an in-person talk with samples on March 10. I hope you can join me. Learn more about these workshops in my column.


For Free the Seeds, I filmed several short pickling demo videos featuring asparagus, one of the first homegrown vegetables I pickle each year. The pickling demos will be available through the Free the Seeds workshop video archive and YouTube channel, along with my full virtual presentation after the event.

You still have time to sign up for my workshop and others on seed starting, growing mushrooms, and more organized by Land to Hand MT, the grassroots organization that runs Free the Seeds and many other incredible programs aimed at building a strong community food system. If you miss the live virtual workshops, the links to these and numerous other presentations will be available through Land to Hand MT in coming weeks.

You can also get the complete recipe for Spring Asparagus Pickles, which I include in the pickling demos, in my Flathead Beacon column.

Make it, share it.
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Twice as Tasty

Like many vegetables, I pickle asparagus in several ways as the first perennial spears start to poke through the ground, when the crop hits its peak, and late in the season before the tips leaf out like ferns. I named my recipe for the quick-pickled version Spring Asparagus because I usually make it first, with young garlic and early Egyptian walking onions, although you can always swap in a mature garlic clove and scallions. Next come refrigerated asparagus spears and, if it’s a bumper-crop year, home-canned asparagus. I tend to ferment asparagus late in the season so that I have a steady supply to drop in homemade Grilled Tomato Bloody Mary Mix all winter.

When Free the Seeds offered to film demo videos, I decided to share all of these versions (my Refrigerated Asparagus Spears recipe is safe for canning, which I teach in private workshops). When the package becomes available on the Free the Seeds workshop video archive and YouTube channel, it will be a great way to check out how one vegetable can turn into so many pickles. You’ll find the recipes for all of these variations in The Complete Guide to Pickling.

For more pickling inspiration, check out some of these other recipes from my cookbook:

• Ginger-Spiked Carrot and Apple Pickle
• Pickled Bell Pepper Slices
• Cultured Curtido (Cabbage Slaw)
• Gravlax (Salt-Cured Salmon)

You can find more pickles from my cookbook and other pickle recipes on the blog through the recipe index. You can also learn more about getting started with pickling in this blog post—and by joining in my two free workshops this month!

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic, a digital collection in an easy-to-read PDF format; it’s only available here.