Homemade Pickles

Fermentation, In the Kitchen, inspiration, NaturalFoodcraft / Aug 22

Lacto-fermented pickle time!

This is our families annual batch making 5 gallons of pickles for the year ahead.
Using local pickling cukes, garden dill and some wild horseradish leaves from behind my house as well as garlic, salt and spices from @lightcellar these are going to be tasty!
This year we are adding horseradish leaves in as well as grape leaves both of which are said to help maintain the crispness of the pickles. Because no one loves mushy pickles… so in they go. Plus the horseradish adds a nice flavour too and is a wild food – at least around here.

The recipe is more of a concept/process than a specific recipe as each jar I approached the same way but did slightly differently. however you put your pickling cukes in a bath of ice cold water, get your other ingredients together like sale, garlic, herbs and or pickling spice (we sell a good blend at Light Cellar) I usually start by adding all the spices and garlic at the bottom, then pack the dukes on top trying to efficiently arrange them in there, horseradish/grape/dillweed, etc.. can go in anytime and be a small handful. once everything is in I put in the salt – it is about 2 Tbsp per litre. then fill the rest with water to make sure everything is covered and submerged. place a loose lid or even better a jar with an air-lock unit on top which is best for fermenting. then let sit for 7-10days at room temp away from sunlight. you will see if get cloudy as this is part of the natural process of fermentation. once done, store in fridge. hope that helps!
enjoy!