The Bounty: Eating with the Seasons

The Bounty: Pickling Cucumbers

When I was a kid, I got into an argument with someone over whether cucumbers and pickles were in fact the same thing—the pickle being merely a pickled cucumber, as I believed—or whether the pickle itself, before being pickled even, was its own vegetable entirely, independent of the cucumber. I was arguing with someone who lived on a farm and grew, so she said, both pickles and cucumbers. I thought she was crazy.

Turns out we were both right (meaning really that we were both wrong). A pickling cucumber is indeed a different creature than its brother the slicing cucumber, but it’s still a cucumber—just one that has been cultivated specifically for pickling. Pickling cucumbers tend to be shorter, thicker, less moist and less uniform with bumpy skin.

The flesh of the cucumber is composed primarily of water, but it also contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and caffeic acid, both of which reduce swelling and soothe skin irritations (there’s something to the old cucumber slices on the eyes trick, after all). The fiber-rich skin is full of potassium and magnesium as well as silica, which is an essential component of healthy connective tissue.

The Banquet: Pickles

While the pickling process does render the vegetable’s hydration abilities null, your digestive system has a lot to gain from the lacto-fermentation. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented veggies enhances digestibility and increases vitamin levels. They produce all sorts of healthy enzymes and promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the intestines. It’s all the goodness of Activia without all the sugar, and it’s easy to do at home!

5 pickling cucumbers

1 tablespoon mustard seeds

2 tablespoons fresh dill

1 tablespoon sea salt

4 tablespoons whey (if not available, substitute an additional tablespoon of sea salt)

1 cup water

Wash cucumbers and place them in a quart-sized wide-mouth mason jar. Combine all other ingredients and pour over cucumbers—add more water if necessary to cover the cucumbers, and make sure to leave at least 1 inch between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar. Cover as tightly as possible and keep at room temperature in a dark place for three days, then transfer to the refrigerator. They can be eaten immediately (after the room temperature fermentation), but the flavor will increase with time, and they can be kept for months.

Enjoy!