Pickled Asparagus

Hi.  My plan was to buy some asparagus and pickle it, like everyone has been talking about.  But everyone said theirs is gone and done.  So I wanted to find a roadside truck.  Nothing.  Finally resolved to at least buy some at the grocery store to at least try this out.  I get to the store for that and some Grapefruit.  The asparagus is bunched together real pretty and looks all fresh.  Then it is banded with a tag from Green Giant.  There are some cooking directions and then, there, bigger than life the statement, "PRODUCT OF MEXICO".  I have to say I'm EXTREMELY disappointed that to get FRESH vegetables in the fresh produce section, I have to buy something from Mexico!  Isn't there plenty of Asparagus in our own area that they can grow and harvest???  It grows in ditches for God's sake!!  Is it cheaper~~~better~~~I can't see how it can be fresher???  Well this is why I am on this venture~to find healthy foods and fast ways to cook that healthier food.  And there will be snags along the way that I will find a way to get around.  In the meantime, I pulled up www.greengiantfresh.com (ironic to me) to see what they posted about this.  Their asparagus has four areas it comes from:  California, Peru, Chili or Mexico!!  Wow!!  So as soon as I get done with this post, I will be shooting off an email to them to tell them how disappointed I am.

So I will continue my quest later this week, hopefully Wednesday at the farmer's market.  Or another grocery store.  Who knows.

Here is the recipe I found and plan to try anyway (for reasons of simplicity and the list of ingredients being more natural than other recipes~I have no idea if it will be any better than any others):

Pickled Asparagus
adapted from Putting Up by Stephen Palmer Dowdney

4 pounds asparagus, trimmed to fit your pint jars and blanched in boiling water for approximately 10 seconds

3 cups vinegar (half apple cider vinegar, half white vinegar)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons Penzeys pickling spice
1 tablespoon red hot chili flakes
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 slices of lemon

3 pint jars (if you use the taller, 12 ounce jelly jars, you don’t have to cut your asparagus quite as short and you’ll probably fill four jars. I didn’t have any, so I didn’t use them).

Sterilize your jars. Put the lemon slice in the bottom and pack the trimmed and blanched asparagus into the jars (it’s up to you to determine whether you want to go tips up or down). Tuck a garlic clove down into the asparagus spears.

Bring the vinegar, water and spices to a boil. Pour into jars on top of asparagus, leaving at least 1/2 inch of head space.

Put lids and rings on the jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (you can skip this step if you plan on just putting your pickles in the fridge).

Wait at least 24 hours before eating, to give the asparagus spears a chance to get sufficiently pickly.