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I decided to make my own Japanese pickled radishes this week. I love all things fermented and my wife is nuts about anything spicey, sour or doused in vinegar. In fact, I think she may love those pickled foodstuffs more than me but that is for another post, another time.
I am always trying to 'DIY' things in the kitchen in a bid to reduce waste and save money. But the reality is, that often DIY hacks are not hacks at all. I looked up dozens of vegan recipes. They all featured sake. Sake? Who has Sake lying around in their kitchen cupboards?
Don't even get me started on Yuzu.
I was so hell bent on making this jar of radishes that I bought all of the ingredients. The shopping bill was over £10. Let's get this straight: £10 = 1 jar of pickled radishes.
I proudly displayed the finished creation on the top shelf of the fridge and instructed my wife that she had to wait at least 2 days before opening the jar. She exerted extreme self-control for a grand total of 36 hours!
Once she opened them and snuck some bites, the children got whiff of the sour little balls of joy. Needless to say, when I opened the fridge after the official 2 day wait, there were 4 radishes left. Luxuriating in a vast pool of brine.
So after spending a small fortune on making this delight, I ended up paying £2.50/pickled radish for the privellage.
This is not to say that we shouldn't DIY our way through life. We should consider whether the planet benefit exists for every DIY hack we undertake.
In my example, though I didn't drive to get one jar of pickles, all of the ingredients I purchased did travel road miles to get to me. And then after environmental consideration we should carefully consider whether the cost to our pockets justifies it also.
What have been your DIY hacks that have cost more than buying in?
This thread can be read here: http://bideplanet.com/2020/10/23/pickling-madness/
