One of the most prolific vegetables in our raised bed garden has been our cucumber plants!
Using wooden steaks and baling twine, we created a trellis that gave our plants a structure on which to climb. With attentive care, water, and summer sun, our healthy plants are giving us cucumbers practically every day! Sometimes, our gardens give us a greater yield than we can immediately consume, so we turn to the most obvious form of preservation… pickling!
Refrigerator pickles take about 5 minutes to prepare and require zero steps of the traditional canning process.
Sliced cucumbers are combined with:
- a simple brine of water
- vinegar
- salt
- garlic
- cloves
- peppercorns
- bay leaf
- crushed red pepper
- fresh dill from the garden.
We filled our mason jars with the pickles and brine, put the lid on the jars and let them do their thing in the refrigerator for about 2 days to let the flavors meld.
The result… crisp, vinegar-y, garlicky pickles with a little kick from the red pepper.
An absolutely delicious and nutritious snack, using the cucumbers from our garden!
