Cucumbers!
The end of summer is a time of transition for many of us. The days are getting shorter, and the air is getting cooler. For gardeners, it’s the time of year to harvest the fruits of our labor. We’ve been busy harvesting our crops, and now that we’ve gathered them, we’re ready to share our delicious recipes and techniques for preserving them into the winter and new year.
Pickles: Fresh pack and Shelf-Stable
I have a large crop of cucumbers from my garden this year, and I am enjoying preserving them for the next year by canning them in a hot water bath. I am also making fresh-pack half-sour pickled cucumbers as a summer treat. Half-sour pickles are easy to make and are delicious treat at summer barbeques.
Half Sour Pickled Cucumber Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups spring water
2 TBSP Sea Salt (add additional 2 TSP if coarse)
1 TSP Black peppercorn
1 TSP Mustard seed
1 TSP Dill seed
5-6 sprigs fresh dill
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1/4 TSP pickle crisp or food grade calcium chloride.
Procedure
- Mix water sea salt and pickle crisp (or CaCl) and stir to dissolve
- Add peppercorns, dill seed, mustard seed, garlic and fresh dill into a clean wide-mouth quart ball canning jar . Add cucumber spears and then add salt water mixture to jar.
- close jars with fermentation lids an set at room temperature 3 to 4 days
- Remove and clean fermentation lids and close jars with lids/rings, set in refrigerator for seven to ten days.
- open and enjoy deli fresh half sour pickles. Refrigerated pickles will keep for about 30 days after opening.
