Recipe: When life gives you abundant cucumbers, make refrigerator pickles

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pickle
It’s easy to make refrigerator pickles from your garden’s abundance of cucumbers. Photo/Kathy Staub

MANCHESTER, NH – This hot humid weather may have you languishing, but in gardens across the state the cucumber plants are loving it. If you are a home gardener, you have probably noticed that every morning there are more and more cucumbers that need picking. Yes, they are crunchy and delicious, and yes you can give some away to friends and neighbors, but what can you do with the rest?

What do I do when I have cucumbers up the wazoo? I make refrigerator pickles. 

It is very easy. There is no need to heat up the kitchen like you do with traditional canning and, in my case, the results are much better. Sadly, every time I tried to make traditional canned pickles, they came out flaccid. No one likes a rubbery pickle. These delicious pickles will keep in your refrigerator for two months.

Refrigerator cucumber pickles

4 sliced cucumbers – no need to peel them

¼ cup sliced green or red bell pepper

¼  cup slivered onion

1 clove of garlic – peeled and sliced

I cup of sugar

1 ½ cup white vinegar

1 tbsp. celery seed

1 tbsp. mustard seed

  1. Make the brine. Combine sugar and vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Putting the solution into the microwave for a minute can help this along. Be sure to let it cool before you put it into the pickle jar.
  2. Find a clean, wide-mouth, glass quart jar. Mason jars will work. I use recycled kimchi jars. 
  3. Slice up the cucumbers and other ingredients.
  4. Layer the cucumbers, onions, garlic slices, and peppers in the jar. Add the celery seed and mustard seed and pour the brine into the jar. 
  5. Put the jar into the refrigerator and wait a couple of days. The waiting is the hardest part.

Enjoy!

 

About this Author

Kathy Staub

Kathy Staub is a NH State Representative for Hillsborough District 25.