my name is Emily sample I'm a local food and beverage enthusiast I am about to embark on a very exciting journey discovering the world of fermentation are going to be talking to some amazing people who are doing some incredible stuff and feet up I have no idea what I'm doing and no clue what I'm getting myself into and I just cannot wait to get started join me on my journey so we can discover together what it means to be spoiled in Sonoma good morning it's Friday and we are in my kitchen we're gonna pickle some onion today I've never pickled anything before I've never fermented anything before this is a total experimental thing I'm not even following a recipe besides a very simple concept of a bride and how you pickle stuff so we're totally gonna wing it and hopefully it turns out really good and I'm putting my own little twist on a recipe a very simple recipe of just apple cider vinegar water salt a little bit of sugar and then I'm adding some spices and hot jalapeno to make it a little bit spicier so let's get started and see how it goes okay so when I was putting my ingredients list together I wanted to make sure that I got some apple cider vinegar from Nana Mays because we just did a little tour through one of their orchards and met with Paul and talked all about how their organic vinegar is a little bit stronger than your average vinegar which makes for great preservation so we're using their apple cider vinegar Nana Mays our favorite we're gonna use a little bit of air abetik sea salt some sugar some whole black peppercorn some cumin seed and mustard seed I'm going to add juice of a couple of limes and a whole jalapeno sliced with the seeds to give it some fatness okay so we're gonna start with cutting some lime there are a lot there's a lot of acid in the apple cider vinegar but I wanted to do two different kinds of acid especially the acid from the lime because I plan on eating this with a lot of ethnic foods and lime is such a great asset and citrus for that so we're just gonna slice these up and make it easy to cut or squeeze the juice out about this knife is really dull bags are not sharpened things are not together we're gonna slice up the jalapeno really thin I'm not gonna take out any seeds and we're just gonna toss this into the brain be careful that you wash your hands really well after and don't rub your I made that mistake a couple of times oh this is my least favorite part I hate cutting onions so much I always make some cry and I forgot to turn on waterproof mascara before I did this I hate it I know there's a lot of tricks that people say that you can do which keeps me crying when you cut onions and none of them work I can even try to work bobbles that does not work either so I'm going to cut them really thin not too thin so where they're paper-thin but definitely thin enough that they're not going to slide out of sandwiches or off of the pizza or anything like that well oh it burns so much I can't believe I have to cut two of these I'm not gonna make it guys it's not gonna work don't look at me okay so I just had a major meltdown I can't cut onions apparently I just can't do it haven't had my camera woman cut the rest of these onions for me everyone in the room is crying and burning and in a lot of pain so let's get this in the bride so that it's not burning anyone's eyes anymore and get this over with it's still burning we're just going to stir this together so we're gonna start out with the Nana Mae's organic apple cider vinegar this is unfiltered vinegar from Gravenstein apples we're gonna do an entire cup I've been doing a lot of kind of fun stuff with apple cider vinegar kind of exploring all the different uses besides just with cooking so I did a mask on my hair the other day and that was kind of cool it almost works like a clarifying shampoo it takes oil builds up also been using it as a toner and it's great I've been really enjoying it but my boyfriend says I smell like feet so that's kind of a downside of using apple cider vinegar for other things other than cooking I'm gonna put a half a cup of water in two and then I'm just gonna squeeze the juice from these limes in no specific measurement I'm just gonna put both limes in hopefully I'm gonna squeeze this into my eye because I'm I don't think my eyes can take anymore at this point I think any of us can it's painful so I'm sure there's like a really fancy way that you're supposed to squeeze lime juice and like with a special squeezer from William Sonoma I don't have that I have my hands so we're working with what we got okay so I'm gonna put in two tablespoons of sugar totally making this up and tablespoon of whole peppercorns I'm gonna do a half a teaspoon of the mustard seeds and a human because they're pretty strong flavors and then finally the salt so just a pinch this aromatic sea salt is really strong it's got a ton of flavor it's in my opinion a lot even more salty than a sea salt so I'm just gonna do a tiny little bit for this that was kind of a lot actually okay we're gonna put this on the stove and simmer for a little while and then finally add the onions and peppers and hopefully you get a little well we're good to get some okay so I'm gonna backtrack I was kind of looking at all the onions that we have and the liquid and it doesn't really seem like we have quite enough liquid to fill up both jars with the onions so I'm actually gonna double the liquid portion of the recipe and add another half a cup of water and another cup of vinegar and then do all the spices again - I could totally mess this up I have no clue it might be delicious it's an experiment we're learning they do if it's totally disgusting and all right now we're gonna put this on the stove and let it simmer for a little while so it's starting to get very aromatic in here my whole house smells like onions and feet but I kind of like it it's coming at me I don't know what simmering looks like but I'm just gonna wait till it starts to bubble a little bit and then we're gonna keep going so since we're waiting for stuff to simmer I thought I pour myself a little glass of Nana Mae's homemade pear and apple cider in my Beerfest cup from the beer fest here in Sonoma County so we're drinking all local stuff we're making all the local stuff cheers to Sonoma cannon is it too early to be drinking cider what time is it my eyes are still burning this is crazy we are gonna put the onions in the jar and then pour the liquid over the onions and seal them up refrigerate them for a little while and then taste them later I have no idea when this is gonna be ready I I've had people say you know I eat them in a few hours I've had people say they waited a couple of days I don't have a lot of patience so I'm probably gonna try these in a few hours oh that is strong okay perfect glad I doubled that liquid well they're so aromatic I can't wait to try if you look kind of closely you can start to see the brine really turn those onions like bright pink and not too long they should be totally a hot pink so the one of the most important things is to make sure that you're pickling process let the product cool so I'm gonna let these cool on the counter until they're room temperature and then I'm gonna seal them and store them in the fridge for a little while so unfortunately I have to wait until we can try them but I will let you guys know later on how they taste so we've let the pickled onions cool for a couple of hours so I'm just gonna cover these guys up we're gonna put them in the fridge and let them sit for a few hours more I'm probably gonna dive into them in five to six hours we'll see how they taste then if they need a little bit more time I'll let you know hey I put some of my pickled onions into a green salad they're very tart I think next time I'm gonna do last lime juice or cut the lime juice totally and add a little bit more sugar so it's those a little sweeter style they are really good the flavor is awesome they're spicy but they're a little too acidic so I think I'm going to adjust my recipe so keep that in mind if you follow mine