Not to butt into the thread, but pickled beets are pretty easy too. You can start with beets fresh from the garden, but I cheat a little. The grocery around the corner recently had Freshlike "Baby Beets" for $.88/can. 3 cans with the juice in a half gallon Mason jar, then boil together 2 cups apple cider vinegar, 2 cups white sugar, and 3 or 4 tablespoons pickling spices till the sugar dissolves and cool. I throw in a few crushed red pepper flakes for some kick. Add that to the beets already in the jar and stick them in the fridge for overnight or longer, they'll keep indefinitely. You can eat the beets first or transfer some of the juice to another jar and make pickled eggs right away. This makes plenty of juice. If you don't like beets just make the vinegar mixture and add a couple cups of water to make a pickling juice. I've seen people add regular yellow mustard to that mix... As with anything the sky is the limit!