They will get very soft. Asparagus are more fiberous than beans, so if you pickle long lengths they might be like chewing on wood, unless you remove most of the thicker part of the stalks.

Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving has a dill Pick-a-Vegetable pickling recipe that uses any one of asparagus, zucchini, mini carrots, cauliflower, or beans instead of cukes. You can do them 1 vege at a time or mix them for a jardiniere and don't know why you couldn't sub dried basil for the dill seed but I'm not sure of the amount of dried basil you'd use (2 T sounds like quite a bit to me). I'd leave out the tomatoes though because it changes the texture and color too much.

Prep the gus by breaking off the tough end of each stalk and then cut to length for your jar (or shorter if mixing). Quantity is determined by the size of the stalks. I'd go with the thinner ones (size of green beans).

______________

7 lbs. prepped vegetables (do a 2 hour pre-soak submerged in ice water/pickling salt mix, drain and rinse well)
1/3 c pickling salt
Ice water (soak for the vegs)

1/2 c chopped red or green sweet pepper
2 T minced garlic
1 jalapeno chopped (optional)
2 T dill seeds (divided)
1 1/2 c sugar
2 T mustard seed
4 c white vinegar
1 c water
Makes 6 pints.

In small bowl combine sweet peppers, garlic, jalapeno, and 1 T dill seed. Mix well and set aside.

In large SS sauce pan combine sugar, mustard seeds, remaining 1 T dill seeds, vinegar, and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves, reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes.

Add drained and well-rinsed vegetables to the pickling liquid and heat just until beginning to boil again. Remove from heat. Pack into hot, boiled jars, add 2 T pepper-dill spice mixture to each jar, leave a generous 1/2" head space. Remove air bubbles, add pickling liquid as needed keeping 1/2" headspace. Apply 2 piece lids and BWB for 10 mins.

I have paraphrased this recipe for space - it's 2 full pages long because it contains all the minute step-by-step details for a first-time canner (cause I know you aren't one ;) but can post all the interim details if needed by anyone.

Needs some fine tuning but let us know how it turns out.

Dave

Took a break while posting so didn't see Ken's post till I was already posted. I agree with the fiberous aspect and hopefully using the thinner stalks will help with that aspect.

Good luck. ;)

Dave

PS: for those interested this latest 2007 edition of the big Ball book is crammed full of what look like great recipes but even more importantly detailed safety info, glossary, problem solvers, and substitution info. Well worth the investment!

I've made this basil jardinaire before, just never used asparagus. I use small green cherry tomatoes, I like them pickled.

A quart of the jardinaire, some red kidney beans, feta cheese and bow tie pasta, instant pasta salad! The reason I started thinking of asparagus is I have so many recipes for pasta salad using asparagus.

asparagus pickles just fine .... I don't find it mushy and small young stalks aren't fibrous. I have a friend who uses a stalk of asparagus in lieu of a celery stalk in bloody marys. of course, we cold pack it. If you precook it too much, it might go mushy. I'd worry more about the squash going soft.
Kay

Last time I made this I used zuchinni, and it was just on the borderline of what I would consider acceptable texture-wise. Come to think of it, yellow squash is even thinner skinned. I dunno, sometimes you just have to go out on a limb and experiment. I'll let you know how it works out. Won't be able to get to my canning til this weekend.

Once you pickle it, try this recipe:

1 package of thin deli ham
1 jar pickled asparagus
1 box soft cream cheese

Spread some of the cream cheese in the middle of one piece of ham and put a piece of asparagus on top. Roll the ham up to make a little "asparagus in a blanket".

Sounds weird, but tastes DELICIOUS!