I planted Sumter Cucumbers what seems like a very long time ago but was only six weeks thinking that it would be neat to make my own pickles.

Then after 6 weeks of watering and fighting crab grass, all of a sudden there are future pickles ready to pick and process. Time to learn HOW to do this pickling thing.

I read several recipes from Preserving Food Without Canning Or Freezing and online, and in the end I kind of made up my own recipe to test out the process.

I started with a 16 oz. pickle jar with screw on lid that I’d washed and saved, a handful of our own wee cukes and half a large cucumber from the farmer’s market sliced into rounds. Those filled the jar, and I also put in two generous sprigs of fresh dill (from the garden), one in the bottom and one on top. I boiled 1/2 cup of white vinegar, then stirred in 1 Tablespoon salt and 3 Tablespoons of sugar until it dissolved, let it cool a bit, poured the liquid into the jar, and added a mix of 1/2 water, 1/2 vinegar until the jar was full and all the cukes were covered. Screwed on lid, put in fridge for 24 hours.

The result? Amazingly good. Truly amazingly good. Refrigerator pickles are apparently good for about 2 months but I don’t think mine are going to last a week so not worried about the shelf life.

Nom. Also? If I’d known it was this easy I’d have started making my own pickles a long time ago. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes. It also used less than $1 in ingredients so significant savings involved over a jar of store pickles. But forget the money, the TASTE is the point here. I’d better make another jar of these so it can marinate the 24 hours we spend devouring the first batch.