Easy Garlic Dill Pickles

Making pickles with our surplus of cucumbers. I decided to try a lightly fermented half-sour recipe. I used about 2 lbs. of cucumbers, and salted them for an hour or so first to crisp up. They ended up a little salty, I should have reduced the salt in the brine slightly. Otherwise very good, though.

For pickling spice, I used a recipe from Quick Pickles: 1 tbl. coriander seed, 1 tbl. mustard seed, 2 tsp. celery seed, 2 tsp. peppercorns. 2 whole cloves, and 4 crumbled bay leaves.

Easy Garlic Dill Pickles
Large glass jar (½ gallon with screw lid)
Cucumbers to fill above jar – ideally as close to the same size as possible
1 tsp pickling spice
¼ cup kosher salt
3-5 garlic cloves
Bunch of dill
1 slice rye bread with seeds

Wash jar well. Pack cucumbers in bottom of jar as tightly as possible. Pour in salt; shove in garlic cloves and some of the dill. Fill rest of jar with cucumbers. Squeeze rest of dill around cucumbers.

Pour boiling water into jar, almost to top. Cover jar and shake to dissolve salt. Open lid and put slice of rye bread inside top of jar. Move jar to sink. Pour boiling water into jar until it spills over. Screw top on tightly.

Put jar in stainless steel bowl to allow for seepage. Set it in a sunny window for 3-4 days. You will have half-sour dills by that time.

Refrigerate – they will continue to pickle in the refrigerator. Enjoy through the winter, if they last that long in your house.

Printed in the Honey Brook Organic Farm weekly member's email, from a member who said, "This recipe comes from my father’s second wife, Florence, who made them a new family tradition (after I was long out of the house). I asked her how she made them the last time we had a bumper crop of cucumbers."