Vert-à-Go

It can be really difficult to find a good dill pickle. Either they’re too soft, or too salty, or the wrong kind of sour, or they’re just plain from too far away. Over the seven years I lived in England–where, inexplicably, grocery stores don’t carry them and most people have never even heard of them–I kept dreaming of those tall glass pickle jars lining my mom’s cold room.

I still haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm for them and have since introduced two small new pickle fiends into the world, so a jar doesn’t exactly last in our fridge for months at a time. I vowed that 2008 was the year that I was finally going to learn how to make them for myself! In August I picked up a couple of bags of small cucumbers (these are available pre-bagged at various farmers’ markets, although I got mine from Sobey’s, who had brought them in from Sovereign Colony near Rosetown). I didn’t have any canning experience, though, so I took them down to the farm to get some long-overdue instruction from my mom. We used her mother’s old recipe–and, I believe, some of Grandma’s old jars too!

Please note that this recipe assumes a familiarity with good canning practices (sterilising jars and following proper sealing procedures).

Olive’s garlic dills

Wash cucumbers. Pack into sterilised jars with garlic and dill. For each quart of cucumbers use:

• 3 cloves garlic
• fresh dill (4 good-sized stems of both leaves and flowers)
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1Tbsp pickling salt

Bring the brine to a boil, pour into jars and seal immediately (no boiling water bath required). Takes six weeks to pickle.

These pickles will last for at least a year (if you haven’t already eaten them all by then), but we have eaten from older jars with no problem at all. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. I did the second batch back at home using snap lids. One lid hadn’t snapped down like the others by the following morning (until I pushed on it), so I stuck that jar in the fridge for its 6-week pickling phase and will use it first, just in case.

And if you don’t feel like waiting until November for your pickles, or you just don’t feel like canning right now? Here’s a great recipe for refrigerator pickles that can tide you over.

Posted September 9th, 2008 under Action, Food miles, Grocery stores, Local food, Local food ideas, Recipes, food, preserving, vegetarian. Tags: Action, advice, food, Grocery stores, Local food, Local food ideas, preserving, recipe
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