Urban Farm Hub

My husband doesn’t just sort of like pickles, he adores them.  It’s not just any pickle on the pinnacle though, it’s the elusive, chimerical east coast half-sour that he really is jonesing for.  On our recent trip to Boston we visited his grandmother then made the pilgrimage to the eastern European deli on the corner that was one of the last hold outs of the genuine article.  We arrived only to find that the sign was still there but the store was gone.  That was it – we just had to learn to make them at home.

I researched a ton and after all the reading found that basically you get super fresh cukes, make up a brine solution, add dill, garlic, black pepper, mustard seed and a bit of bay leaf  then let them ferment until they have the desired amount of sourness.

To get the freshest cucumbers possible we went to Foxberry U-Pick farm in Puyallup with an ice chest to pick then rush home and start pickling.  When we got there we found them almost picked out.  The farmer suggested coming back on a Thursday as they are closed the first part of the week and that’s the day to get the most ripe produce.  When picking out cukes for pickling you want to get the bumpy ones that aren’t too big.  English eating cucumbers have a smooth thick skin that makes it hard for the brine to penetrate into the fruit so avoid those.

U-pick 

These are a little too big. They are losing their bumps and beginning to turn yellow.

Field of half sour dreams.

With a half bucket picked  and no more to be seen we headed for pickle central, Duri’s, to stock up.  The Duri family has has been growing and selling cukes for over 50 years down in Puyallup and even if you aren’t into the whole pickle thing their awesome stand is worth a visit.

They pick

Enticing displays to get the pickling juices flowing.

All you need for pickle mania.

Maybe some pickled leeks?

They sell their pickles by number with 100 cukes about seventeen dollars.  All around pawing in the sorted bins were people enthusiastically counting out their chosen fruit.  I admit that I got caught up in the frenzy and before I knew it I was straying from the half-sour mission and thinking of petit French cornichons and dills.  We staggered out with bags of spices, hot peppers, non-iodized pickling salt and all manner of cukes.

Once we got home we lightly washed the fruit and cut off the blossom end so they wouldn’t rot then my husband made refrigerator half-sours and I made canned dill, cornichons and table top fermented pickles.  For the table top ones I used Sandor Katz great recipe it’s very easy and you get all sorts of probiotic goodness along with your tasty condiment.

Here are the table top fermenters on day one.

Here they are beginning to bubble on day two. It’s hot today and they are already beginning to be sort of picklish.

It is normal for the table top fermenters to get cloudy and even to have a light layer of mold on the top.  If your brine solution is mixed properly then the mold is harmless and can be skimmed off.

Finished pickle.

To make the little French pickles takes a bit more time and effort.  First you need to cover them with salt to take off some liquid.  Then you wash them well, put them in jars and add your pickling liquid.  I like to use tarragon too.

Here are the little cukes with salt. 

Once they are well rinsed, put the spickes, onion, garlic and a grape leaf, (for crispness) in the bottom of the clean jar and pack in your mini-cukes.  Once they are well packed, pour in the vinegar, water, salt pickling solution and water bath can for 10 minutes for jelly jars and 15 minutes for quarts.  Here is the recipe I like to use.

So what about the half-sours my husband was working on?  Being of a scientific turn of mind he decided to use a refrigerator method that allows you to vary the amount of salt added to the brining solution.  Sadly none of the pickles are the true half-sour but they are quite tasty.  In some ways it’s kind of nice to have a continuing quest!