Summer is in full swing here, and our fridge is once again crammed with garden goodness - cabbages, lettuce, peas, beets, green onions, zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumbers, cucumbers, cucumbers!
I ended up with about twice as many cucumber plants as we needed this year, as my first planting didn't come up well, so I planted extra the second time, and they ALL came up! I thinned them out pretty heavily, but we still ended up with 6 or 7 cucumbers plants. Since these are the extremely prolific Boston pickling variety, we really only need 4 plants maximum - and that's if we want to can a lot of pickles.
Needless to say, we are swimming in cucumbers this summer! I pick a colander full almost daily, and we've been eating variations on cucumber salad several times per week, giving them away, and of course, making pickles! I usually can a few batches when we have a lot, as we only grow cucumbers every few years due to pests, and they will last us a couple of years.
This weekend was dill pickles - whole, spears, and hamburger slices. Next weekend will be the classic bread & butter pickles (my favorite), and I may even try a new sweet and spicy variety if they continue producing heavily like this.
I also love naturally fermented pickles, and was amazed to discover that, although I have shared many natural fermentation recipes here, I've never shared a recipe for lacto-fermented cucumber pickles. While these do need to be refrigerated once they have fermented to your taste (so you can't make gallons of them), they are so tasty you may just have a new batch going every week while the cucumbers last! Below is the simple recipe I use.
I ended up with about twice as many cucumber plants as we needed this year, as my first planting didn't come up well, so I planted extra the second time, and they ALL came up! I thinned them out pretty heavily, but we still ended up with 6 or 7 cucumbers plants. Since these are the extremely prolific Boston pickling variety, we really only need 4 plants maximum - and that's if we want to can a lot of pickles.
Needless to say, we are swimming in cucumbers this summer! I pick a colander full almost daily, and we've been eating variations on cucumber salad several times per week, giving them away, and of course, making pickles! I usually can a few batches when we have a lot, as we only grow cucumbers every few years due to pests, and they will last us a couple of years.
This weekend was dill pickles - whole, spears, and hamburger slices. Next weekend will be the classic bread & butter pickles (my favorite), and I may even try a new sweet and spicy variety if they continue producing heavily like this.
I also love naturally fermented pickles, and was amazed to discover that, although I have shared many natural fermentation recipes here, I've never shared a recipe for lacto-fermented cucumber pickles. While these do need to be refrigerated once they have fermented to your taste (so you can't make gallons of them), they are so tasty you may just have a new batch going every week while the cucumbers last! Below is the simple recipe I use.
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