Fermented Pickles (and Warm Salad)

One of my cucumber varieties started producing (the other two are flowering now), and I have had cucumbers for about a week now. I wanted pickles, even though I didn't have many yet, so I made a small jar a few days ago that tasted ready today. I actually just made a quart of salt brine, so that I could make a jar at a time as I have some extra stuff (not that making salt brine is hard, but might as well just measure it out once and have it ready to go). So far the brine has resulted in this small jar of cucumbers, and a quart of dilly beans, which are my favorite.

My experience lacto-fermenting cucumbers is that they do not last as long as other things. The cucumbers I need to eat in a month or so, but if I leave them for the winter or spring, they are too soft and I don't eat them. The dilly beans (and kraut) always stay crisp, and I keep those in the fridge for a year and they are still good.

My method was to make a fairly salty brine, which tends to be better for hot weather: I used 3 T of salt to 1 quart water, though you could use less. Once you have the brine, you can pour that over whatever veggies you want to pickle: cucumbers, green beans, green tomatoes, garlic, peppers, etc. You can add in any herbs or spices you like. Below is what I would use in a quart of (dill) pickle.

Fermented Pickles
1 quart jar filled with veggie of choice
1 head flowering/seeded dill
1-2 garlic cloves, peeled
pinch of peppercorns
red chili pepper flakes
fresh oak/horseradish/cherry or grape leaf
*(if you have it to keep the veg crunchy)
salt brine solution (3 T salt to 1 quart water)

Put everything in a jar and stuff it full as well as you can. Be sure to use the freshest vegetables you have, and to remove the flowers from cuke ends and trim the green beans. Ideally, you want all veggies to be submerged under the brine, but they sometimes get sneaky and stick out, or the spices float. This means you may get a little white film on anything sticking out, which you can just pull off. I just loosely cover my jar with the lid, screwed on but not tight, and don't worry about it. But you can also fill a ziplock with some water and use that to press everything under the brine, or fill a smaller jar with something to weight the veggies down. Sometimes the liquid will overflow, so I set it on a plate and check them every day or two.

These take anywhere from 2-5 days, depending on the heat and how you like your pickles. Taste them and decide what you like.

I ate my pickles on a cheeseburger, and also made a warm-ish salad of seared zucchini, tomatoes, blanched green beans, cucumbers, basil, mint, and feta. It was delicious with a simple vinagrette on top.