it’s been one of those summers. one of those that happens more and more frequently. fall is falling before summer even sums.
if you know what i mean.
lest you think that i have endless amounts of summertime to frolic in my garden and a myriad of long n’ lazy sunny mornings lounging amongst my preserving pots (in my pjs). and hours upon hours to hone my blogging skillz.
i don’t. or at least i didn’t, and i haven’t yet.
if it wasn’t for the sheer belief i have in eating what i grow or what my neighboring farmers grow, and the necessity of preserving the northeast growing season to do just that year round, i might have quit the whole shebang this summer. yup, rolled up the blog/s and called it a season.
but i didn’t, i can’t and i won’t.
’cause i believe in it way too much to let a little (read; m*#ther=@cking lot!) of work get in my way.
as stressful as life can be sometimes, as fast as it can go; when i can barely get food from garden to table, never mind into jars saved for later. when every daylight hour plus is spent hunched over keyboard, nary a word typed in a jam or a pickle, i still can’t forget the fact that it’s important to slow down, take note of the seasons.
get my paws in the dirt.
even if i can’t do it all, i can do it some.
these cool cukes are a quick & easy way to get these stress-inducing little growing machines (jeesh, if only i could be as cool as a cucumber!) saved for later. i love fermented pickles, but growing your own rarely produces a bushel full of similar sized cukes at one time. with this method, you can do batches of a 1/2 gallon, quart, or even a single pint at a time – i often do pints of little cornichon sized cukes.
cool cukes
- fresh 2-4 inch long organic cucumbers, blossom ends sliced off, enough to fill a quart jar
1 large clove garlic, peeled & coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon allspice berries, lightly crushed*
1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns*
1 large dried red chili, broken into bits*
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fennel fronds (or dill)*
1 & 1/2 tablespoons sea salt (not super fine)
1 quart jar with a tight fitting lid
yield: 1 quart
1. place salt, herbs, spices and garlic in a sparkling clean jar.
2. fill jar with cukes. pack them in, but not so tightly that they can’t move at all.
3. fill jar with cold spring or filtered water (chlorine can hinder the fermenting process, be careful of city tap water). cap the jar tightly and shake it vigorously. shake it until all the salt has dissolved.
4. put in the fridge. your cool cukes will be femented pickles in approximately 3 weeks.
that’s it! you don’t need to worry about keeping the cukes submerged – or any of that time consuming stuff. just stick them in the back of the fridge and soon you will have the most delicious fermented pickles with the perfect pickly crunch. it’s true!
scale up or down depending on what you harvest or bring home from the farmers market. be sure to adjust the salt accordingly depending on the size jar used.
i make a jar approximately every four days when my garden is producing cucumbers. it takes about 10 minutes – and when preserving is hard to do, at least i can do this.
at least i can do this.
pawnote:
*for every quart jar add 3/4 teaspoon whole spices of your choice (mustard seed, mace, nutmeg, white pepper, fennel seed, etc) add the chile or no, and 1 tablespoon fresh herbs – maker’s choice. what i’ve listed above is one of my fave combos, but i vary spices and herb often. easy to do when making one jar at a time.
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The great thing about canning is that you can still have a pantry full of jars filled from last year. I try each season to tick a couple of new ingredients off my 'must find and learn everything about' list. When trying to incorporate old style resourcefulness into modern life we must be kind and congratulate ourselves on what does get done.
Yes! I didn't know I could ferment pickles this way- small batch in the fridge, without submerging, etc. Could revolutionize my summer harvesting. Woot!
i TOTALLY feel you on being busy and overworked! i split my time between san francisco and our farm, and for about the last two months all i have been thinking is like "ughhh i thought there was supposed to be more frolicking involved in this whole farm thing" …. anyways… DONT quit your blog! we will all still love you if you can't post as often.
Tigress! First off, what brilliance! I am on this immediately, since this must be the year of the cucumber, or says my garden. I wonder if it would work with thick slices? I have a ton of lemon cukes that don't work so well whole, but do great sliced. (They pickle so well!)
And I hear you loud and clear on the blog thing. And I also hear you loud and clear on not being able to stop. We can only go at the pace we can go at. "Hang on loosely, but don't let go." ; )
You must have heard my dear friend Karen asking for a dill pickle recipe last night….her husband randomly decided its a must have if she's canning this year….this will be splendid for her.
I saw these cucumbers for sale at a store the other day. I was wondering what to do with them. I like the green color of them. Nice post.
laundryetc – true and true!
meg – grow and resist – I hope so!
caroline – thanks, and I won't quit!
julia – I have not tried it with slices. my pet peeve is overgrown cukes so I am diligent about getting them before they need splitting. that said, I hear you about the round ones. my guess is it would work and I would love to get confirmation on that if you try it. and yes, hanging on loosely is the way for me this summer.
are you trimming the blossom end of these little guys?
Oh man, I feel your pain. I have a ginormous pile of work and deadlines that freaking me out. I also have (had) 70 lbs of fruit in the fridge and all over the house, so this weekend I had to draw a line between work and fruit… And I chose fruit, So yesterday was cherries and apricot sauce and apricot jam. Today is peach salsa and peach sauce/butter… but it probably still won't rid of 40 lbs of ripe peaches… I am screwed…
I literally just made these! I'm in the Army Reserves and just got done with a long drill weekend. I just finished a cigar and a vodka tonic and was sitting on my couch when I read this blog. I got up and made these cukes (I had a handful of some pickling cucumbers in my fridge from my co-op basket)…it took me 30 seconds. I love you!
I didn't know you could ferment pickles in the fridge! I can't wait to try this, since I don't have a cool space for the traditional fermeting method. Thanks for sharing!
fiona – yikes! yes, i just realized that i didn't add that. it's fixed. thanks for noticing!
olga – oh man! get dem peaches in jars!
usagyrl – good for you – enjoy!
trisha – you're welcome!
If only I had the fridge space! Er, and didn't already have 3 quarts and a few pints of fridge picklz going on. Looks delicious. Definitely bookmarked for next year
Thank you for posting this! I do some fermenting in the cooler months, but, I've had no luck in the summer. (I'm in Florida, and the heat and humidity makes things go off too quickly.)
I am very excited to try this recipe, since I also did not realize that you could ferment in the fridge.
Loving this!! I tried to make fermented pickles once and it was a nasty-smelling disaster. I bet these end up like half-sour deli pickles, am I right? I hope so b/c I'm off to start a batch right now. THANKS!
I wish bloggers provided emails! I follow a site that was talking about their posts being stolen, so I looked up the site and your posts are there too! (I'm seeing a pattern, most of the blogs I follow on my reading I located via the "explore" link in google) Thought I'd let you know so you can go for a shut down of his site as well :
http://bloggoblokimagenes.blogspot.com
I saw his "Cool Cukes : Quick and Easy Ferments
I know it's yours!
anonymous – i do give my email! it's under contact in the right sidebar! thanks for telling me about this, someone else contacted me about it this morning also – i cannot believe that people think it's ok to steal someone's work. thank you again for notifying me.
Wow! Thank you so very much for this post. I'm in my third year of gardening, had given up on cukes because I hadn't thought to ferment a jar at a time. I just discovered your wonderful AND informative blogs via SouleMama. I appreciate the gentle reminder to slow down, do what I can and let " good enough " be just that….. Good enough.
I only have fine sea salt. Will something awful happen? If not, would you recommend using the same quantity? Thanks and thanks for this recipe. So glad to fine it via Soulemama.
Thanks for the recipe! I havent had these since I was a kid.
I love this! I had a quick question, though- once these have fermented, do they need to stay in the fridge?
onmytiptoes – yes, they do need to stay in the fridge, or at a very cool temp. because fermented food is live, it will keep fermenting. fermentation happens at a faster rate the warmer it is, so the cooler the temp, the longer they last.
anonymous – nothing awful will happen with fine sea salt! just go a bit lighter with it, otherwise your cukes will be too salty.
artatphotokat – welcome! and yes, slow down, breath, …one jar at a time.
um, so, the fizz on the tongue is the ferment and not cause for a Hazmat suit then?
I love homemade pickles and can't wait to try this
Now what to do with all of these damn peppers? They are too hot to eat raw!
Looks like I'm awfully late to this party, BUT, I just decided to try this with unripened melons from my garden. Hope it works!
Cucumbers are a staple in my grocery list…I love them because I can just slice them and they match with just about anything and everything. But y' know, even the most flexible veggie can turn into a bore…Pickling cucumbers can make them stay a staple in my dining table for longer.
Thanks!
If you add a tablespoon of whey (made from letting raw milk sit on your counter until the solids rise to the top) in there, you have a fabulous lacto-fermented good-for-the-gut pickle. Thanks for reminding me about this fab method of preserving!
My mom doesn't like to much spices specially chili.
can you recommend other ingredients that would make it very tasty..
Oopsie, I used fine sea salt and now my pickles are too salty. Is there anything I can do to save them? Or are we relegated to eating them very, very slowly, little slices at a time?
In light of that, how long will these babies last in the fridge approximately?
ooh, i know of where you speak. you can rinse them off in cold water before eating. that will eliminate some of the salty taste, but not a whole lot.
in terms of keeping time. i’ve had them last up to two months or so in fridge, but they do continue to ferment so you want to be careful and not keep them too long or they will get soft.
Oh, thank you! Good to know on the rinsing. And the keeping time! I wonder if canning them with a hot water bath would make them keep longer? I made a giant batch….3 one gallon jars, 3 quart jars. We’ll never finish them in 2 months. We like pickles, but not that much!