Spice of Life Vegetables!

I was cleaning my pantry and wanted to reclaim some space for other foods. I had almost and entire shelf dedicated to small spices. I was going to purchase a pre-made rack to insert on the shelf until my husband reminded me the one that I loved on the Kitchen Cousins! Beautiful reclaimed wood spice rack. So here we go:

We decided to hang an anchor board on the wall so we would have less nails going through the drywall. We attached the anchor board with screws to the studs as seen above:

After Hurricane Ike in 2008 destroyed our pitiful privacy fence we kept a portion of it. Chris dismantles it and removed all nails. I washed all the boards with an old toothbrush to be thourogh!

Now we had to think of the shelves. We went with a tankless hot water heater years ago and we had left over copper pipe 3/4". I purchased some 90 degree copper elbows and 1x3" cedar planks and also 3/4" dowel rod. Measure how long you want your shelves by placing the spices on the board. Also we shaved off an inch or less of dowel to nail (wire nail) the dowel to where you want your copper rod to fit on the shelf board, not sure if you can see them on the photo with the clamp.... The elbows are hollow and fit sunuggly on the dowel rod, this stables your copper railing. this is important! make sure you get a wide enough shelf board that includes the depth of your copper rod railing! I did not and Chris improvised by setting the shelf a little further from the wall so my spices and the copper railing both fit. Ends up, I prefer this way!

Pick out your favorite pieces of wood and cut. Then go nail them to your anchor board. You are nearly there!

                          
                                         
Start hanging those shelves with L brackets!

Admire! You may notice once side of my spice rack is butted up against a wall and the other is staggered and uneven looking. This was done purposefully. You can do yours anyway you want :).

Using the Spice rack! I needed my Turmeric, Celery Seed, and Mustard Seed and didn't have to go digging in the pantry anymore. Best feeling! I made these snack veggies for when I feel like I need a pickle. But these are made with very little salt:

Cider mix:
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup wholsome organic sugar
dash of : mustard seed, celery seed, salt, and turmeric
1/2 cup water

Sliced Veggies:
English cucumber, onion, carrot and radish (all organic)

Heat the water, sugar, cider, salt, and spices together until it comes to a boil and sugar is dissolved.
Place sliced veggies in a mason,ball, kerr jar or any container that can be sealed and placed in the refrigerator. Pour the boiled cider mix over the veggies and cover, place in refrigerator immediately!. (You can process in a water bath too, not sure about the water/vinegar ratio on this to process tho) wait 12 hours before you eat any. tastes better that way ;) This is low in sodium, but it does have calories!