Pickled Cucumbers & Garlic Scapes
I like simple dill pickles without additional spices, but you could add a few teaspoons of picking spices, if you like. You could also add 1 tablespoon of mustard seeds (the original recipe from Nourishing Traditions actually calls for this).
Servings: 0
Equipment
- 1 one-quart mason jar very clean with screw-top lid; run through the dishwasher before using to ensure it is sterilized
Ingredients
- 4-5 cucumbers Kirby or some other pickling variety
- 5 garlic scapes
- 3 tbsp fresh dill
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 cup filtered water
Instructions
- Wash the cucumbers. Snip off the very ends and slice them lengthwise. Cut off the tops and bottoms of the garlic scapes and then cut them into pieces several inches long.
- Place cucumbers and garlic scapes into a 1 qt. wide-mouth mason jar. Mix salt and water in a small bowl and pour into the jar. Add additional water so that the vegetables are completely covered and the liquid is about 1 inch below the top of the jar. Screw the top on the jar tightly and allow to sit at room temperature for three days.
- After this time, go ahead and open the jar. The liquid should be pretty fizzy, which means the lacto-fermentation was successful. If there is any type of "off smell", discard and start again (I'm mentioning this as a caution, but also want to mention that I have been lacto-fermenting for years, and I have never had anything go wrong).
- Go ahead and taste a pickle. The cucumbers should have a nice garlicky tang from the scapes, and they should be pleasantly "dilly". You can eat the pickled garlic scapes too, of course, but they are strong.
- Once opened, move your jar to the refrigerator for storage. Lacto-fermentation will continue in the colder temperature, but at a much slower rate, and the garlic scapes should mellow a bit over time.