Pickled sea asparagus

One of the interesting dichotomies about Alaska is the contrast between how Alaska often feels like such a small town while it is such a vast landscape.  With a small population of just over 700,000 and since people move around a bit, I’m constantly running into random people wherever I go in Alaska—especially in Anchorage or Juneau—so I don't feel far from home even when hundreds of miles away from Fairbanks.   

On the other hand, Alaska is so big geographically (twice the size of Texas), it spans really different ecosystems.  After years of living, studying, and working in Interior Alaska and having worked on the North Slope, I feel fairly knowledgeable about the boreal forest and tundra plants.  Southeast Alaska is a whole other world to me.  I’m completely enchanted by the massive trees and array of understory plants and mushrooms I still need to learn.  Plus it's got the forest-ocean ecotone with all of those plants and seaweeds.    

Recently I took advantage of a small lull during a transition in my life to pop down to Southeast for a bit to visit friends and soak in the ambiance of the rain forests, the majestic mountains, and the soothing ocean.

While meeting up with my friend Christine for brunch at the Sandpiper—my favorite Juneau brunch spot—she mentioned that she had just harvested a bunch of sea asparagus the day before and was going to spend the afternoon pickling it.  I immediately volunteered to help since (1) I had no idea what sea asparagus was and (2) I’ve been curious to learn how to pickle vegetables for awhile now.  So we headed back to her house and got started.


Sea asparagus (Salicornia virginica)

It tastes salty!

 

The first thing we did was to sort out any debris and trim a few brown spots on the sea asparagus.

Since it was a gorgeous, non-rainy day, we took the task outside to the deck!

 

We had to track down the very last of the fresh dill in all of Juneau.  Luckily Rainbow Foods had two bunches left since all the other grocery stores in town were completely sold out!

Ingredients

~1 gallon bag full of sea asparagus

bottle of vinegar

peppercorns

fresh dill

garlic cloves

Also needed: canning jars and lids!  Christine pulled out her pint-sized canning jars and fit lids to them.

 

 Then the jars & lids were washed and air-dried.

Each jar needs two small bunches of dill, a garlic clove, and peppercorns.

We started with a small bunch of dill and some of the peppercorns at the bottom of each jar.

In a large pot, we mixed together equal portions of vinegar and water (about 3 1/2 cups of each) and added the garlic cloves and some peppercorns.  We brought it to a simmer to infuse the flavors.  After the flavors were infused, Christine dropped a garlic clove from the pot into each one of the canning jars.

I stuffed the sea asparagus into the jars, leaving ~ 1 inch of room at the top.

Next, the jars were topped off with a bit more dill.

Christine poured the garlic-peppercorn infused vinegar water into the jars, leaving ~ 1 inch of room at the top.

Finally the lids went on, Christine made sure not to touch the inside of the lids.  The lids should be secure, but not super tight.

Then the jars were submerged in a boiling hot bath for 10 minutes.

Christine pulls the jars out of the hot bath.

Once the jars were on the counter beginning to cool, we heard the lids pop.  This lets us know that they are airtight!

But now we must wait three weeks for the flavors to meld!