Minty Turnip Lactopickles

Ingredients

• 8-10
  
  Hakurei or other small turnip, greens removed, rinsed and unpeeled
  
• 1
  
  tablespoon sea salt
  
• 2
  
  cups filtered water
  
• 4
  
  sprigs garden mint, each about 3 inches in length
  

Directions

1. Thoroughly rinse and quarter your turnips. Put them in a wide-mouthed quart jar. The jar should be full to just under the shoulders.
2. Mix sea salt into room temperature water until dissolved. Pour this brine over your turnips until they are just covered.
3. Find a way to submerge your turnips. You can do this by filling a smaller (jam) jar with water, closing it and placing it into the quart jar, on top of the turnips. You can put a plastic ziploc bag with leftover brine in it on top of your veggies, you can use a boiled stone or even a lemon. It doesn’t matter how you do it, but make sure there is a liquid layer on top of your turnips. This allows fermentation to occur.
4. Cover your jar, or jars, if using the ghetto jar method, with a cloth, and secure the cloth with a rubber band to prevent flies from flying in.
5. Place jar on a plate or in a bowl and let it sit at room temperature for about two weeks, away from direct sunlight. Your turnips will give up some of their water when the salt gets absorbed, so the bowl is there to collect that excess.
6. At two weeks, taste your pickles. If they are acidic enough, it’s time to stick them in the fridge. If not, recover and allow them to sit for another day or two.
7. Before putting them in the fridge, press your sprigs of mint into the brine, in the crevices formed by the turnip pieces. Put the lid on your jar and stick it in the fridge. After 3 days, remove the mint sprigs and enjoy your minty pickles alone, in salads or as a cheese accompaniment.