Make Fermented Pickles

Available at the markets now: pickling cucumbers! And in just a week you could have fermented pickles. I just made pickles last night in about 15 minutes.

If you haven’t ever made your own pickles, now is the time. There is no canning involved if you want to make healthful, pro-biotic, lacto-fermented pickles. You just make a brine, let everything sit completely submerged at room temperature for a few days, and then put them in your fridge to stop the fermenting process (and preserve the goodness). These pickles will last a few months.

Here’s a recipe and instructions adapted from Cultures for Health.  I also cross-referenced with Deep Roots at Home.

Equipment:

• Individual glass quart jars, a 1-gallon glass jar, or ceramic crock (with lids). You don’t need a fermenting kit (which contains an airlock valve, special lid and weights), but if you’d like one you can buy it at the market from Britt’s Pickles (West Seattle Farmers Market) for $40.
• If you don’t have a fermenting airlock or crock, you can cover the jars with muslin or a kitchen towel or a coffee filter secured with a rubber band. If you use a screw on a lid, you will have to “burp” your pickles everyday.
• Fermenting Weights (or a non-porous rock sanitized in vinegar, or a clean ziploc sandwich baggy filled with brine)

Ingredients:

• Sea salt* or pickling salt
• Filtered or distilled water
• 4-6 grape, oak, or horseradish leaves (optional, but some say this ads crispness). Use whatever you can forage around your neighborhood. Anyone with a grape vine has plenty to spare right now.
• 6-9 cloves garlic*, peeled and smashed or rough chopped.
• Dill*, 2 heads, a handful of chopped fresh, or a couple tablespoons of dried.
• Spices to taste: black peppercorns, red pepper flakes*, mustard seeds*, whole dill seed*, coriander seed*, fennel seed*, etc.
• A few pounds of pickling cucumbers*. If they’re bigger than you would like in a pickle, cut them into spears.
• I threw in some whey from the top of my yogurt because Dale from Woodring NW once told me to do that when making sauerkraut, so we’ll see if that was a good idea…

 
*Available at the Farmers Market!
 
Instructions:
I made mine in a gallon jar, so adapt this strategy according to your container.

• Make brine. The ratio is 1 T salt to 2 cups water. I just kept making 2 cup batches as I went, adding a little hot, boiled water to dissolve the salt.
• Rinse pickles and put a layer of 3-4 in the bottom. Add some dill and garlic and top with a grape leaf. Add brine.
• Do that more.
• (Keep adding pickles, spices, brine, and leaves in layers.)
• End with a last grape leaf.
• Make sure everything is submerged in brine. Add weights to keep everything down. Cover.
• Take arty photo and post on Instagram with the tag @seattlefarmersmkts.
• If you’re using a lid, don’t forget to “burp” your pickles daily to release the gas.
• If they develop a film on top, skim that off.
• The brine should turn cloudy and bubbly, and the pickles should taste sour and yummy when done. Test on day 4. They shouldn’t take more than 8 days, but will go much faster if your house is warm.

 
Happy pickling!
- Julian, NFM Associate Director