dill pickles

  

today, we made refrigerator dill pickles. easy, cheap, fun, delicious. dinah and i planted a garden this spring and grew cucumbers for just this purpose: summertime pickling.

our backyard garden is doing well this year, and we've had a large bounty of cucumbers already, and twice as as many coming up behind the ones we've already harvested.

dinah's garden

hello there cucumber

the kids helped me harvest the cucumbers (probably the best part if you asked them), and dinah helped me peel garlic, break off sprigs of dill, and measure out the salt, red pepper flakes, and apple cider vinegar. i did the cutting and arranging of cucumber spears and pouring of hot brine. charlie stood by, eager to help, but mostly just sat on the countertop watching us, swinging his toddler feet clad in dinah's too-big rain boots while grasping a too-big cucumber we weren't going to use.

this year, i used wide mouth pint size canning jars and filled seven. i'm not sure how many cucumbers i used. lots. a large pile of them...probably like 30-40 small cucumbers.

refrigerator dill pickles

you'll need:

cucumbers

jars

garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

fresh dill

red pepper flakes

salt

apple cider vinegar

water

for the brine:

2 c. apple cider vinegar (use a high quality vinegar; one with "the mother" (i use bragg's organic raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar))

2 c. water

3 TBS salt

place in each clean jar:

2-3 smashed garlic cloves

a small handful of dill

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

once everything is placed at the bottom of the jar, pack in the cucumber spears or coins. leave about an inch of space from the top. i usually top with a sprig of dill for good measure. once arranged, pour the hot brine over the pickles until covered. secure the lids and leave out until they've reached room temperature and then store in your refrigerator. let them sit for 48 hours before trying them. they will store in your refrigerator for several weeks, though they'll never last that long around here!