Fresh Garden Recipe: Refrigerator Dill Pickles

This may be more of a cooking post than a gardening one, but if you're anything like me this summer, you may be wondering what to do with all these cucumbers!  I am so happy with my cucumber harvest this year - it's the first time in years I've been able to successfully grow them. In part, this is probably due to all the rain (no matter how much I water, it never seems to be enough for them during a hot, dry summer), and partly because I planted a different variety this year on the advice of my gardening guru sister. She suggested instead of the long supermarket green variety, I try growing pickling cucumbers instead, which are smaller, sweeter, less seedy, and more prolific. And boy they are!


My cucumbers climbing.

My lovely vines outgrew their trellis in about 2 weeks, and I created a makeshift extension of twine strung from the trellis to the eaves. They greedily climbed it, and are now progressing across the front edge of the roof on another piece of twine. They are constantly and beautifully blooming, and have been producing for over 6 weeks now, with no signs of slowing down.

The cucumbers are lovely and crunchy and juicy, without a hint of bitterness, even though I let some of them get a little bigger than recommended. I don't like large seeds in my cucumbers, and these have very tender small ones.

This must be a good year for cukes, as we're still getting them (longer than usual) in my CSA, and as a result, I have more cucumbers than I can eat fresh - an unusual situation! But one that is easily remedied, since I did grow pickling cucumbers after all....

So today I pulled out my trusty old refrigerator dill recipe, and pickled a couple of pints of extras. These are all organic - the cucumbers and dill are from my own garden, and I also used locally grown organic onions and garlic from my CSA share. Refrigerator dills are super easy, always crunchy, and they keep pretty much forever in the fridge and just get better with time. As long as you have space in your fridge, you're good to go!

Here is the recipe - it's not all that specific on the amounts you will need, but it always works well for me. I made about a half-recipe today, so if you don't have a ton of cucumbers you are welcome to cut it down. I used pint jars instead of quarts, and I had just a few left over so I also made one half-pint jar at the end which will be my "tester" to taste and see if they're ready yet. :-)

Easy Refrigerator Dills

Ingredients:

Fresh organic pickling cucumbers (my recipe doesn't say how many so I usually just guess based on how many jars I want to make; I would guesstimate you would want about 4-5 lbs of cukes for this whole full-sized recipe)
2-3 heads of fresh dill, plus a few extra leaves if you have them
2-3 cloves of garlic
3/4 tsp whole mustard seed
2 c. filtered or distilled water
2 c. white vinegar
1/4 c. kosher salt or pickling salt
1 tsp sugar
One small onion - sliced into rings (optional)

Directions:

• Wash and sterilize 2-3 quart jars and canning lids (you can re-use lids - you don't need to use brand new ones like with regular canning - just be sure that they are clean, with no dents or scratches or rusty places; if not dented, they will seal well anyway) - you can sterilize in your dishwasher if it has this setting, or by immersing in boiling water for a minute or so.
• Wash cucumbers and cut off ends. Cut large ones into spears, or leave small ones whole.
• Meanwhile bring water and vinegar to a boil, then stir in salt and sugar until dissolved.
• Place one dill head - and extra leaf or two if you want them extra dilly, one peeled garlic clove, and a few onion rings (if using) into sterilized jars.
• Pack cucumbers into jars tightly.
• Add 1/4 tsp whole mustard seed to each jar.
• Pour boiling vinegar mixture over pickles. Fill to 1/2" from top. Put lids on jars and tighten, but don't crank them down hard or they can be a dickens to open later!
• Let cool on counter for an hour or so, then put into refrigerator.
• Let sit at least 2 whole days before eating. You will notice the cucumbers changing color from bright to dull green - don't sample until they are all dull green. Wait a whole week (if you can!) for best taste. The flavor will continue to improve the longer they sit. Will keep for many months in the fridge.
• Enjoy!

My half-batch from today. Mmmmm...don't know if I can make it a week!

Now if only we could pickle zucchini....