Posted: 7/7/2013 6:21:26 PM EDT
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My garden is running behind this year due to some late cold weather. I just now have cucumbers coming on. For the first time, I planted "pickle" cucumbers along with standard garden cucumbers. My question is: Is there a way to keep the little cucumbers fresh until I have enough to can? Can they be frozen and canned later? Thanks in advance.
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The longest I have been able to wait is 2 days and that was by refrigerating them. I just make sure I have enough plants to ensure a good pickle session.
What also helps is to pickle other items simultaneously (like peppers). I had the same problem with lateness and just now noticed that you are from Kansas. Good luck with your pickling. |
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About the only real solution I've found for that is to grow more plants, but a little late for that this year. You might be able to supplement with a neighbor's excess, or even pick up a few at a farmer's market. You can also pickle regular slicing cukes, if you grew enough of those to spare some. Just pick them at about the same length as your pickling cukes and they'll be fine.
ETA: you definitely cannot freeze them. Try one as a test and you'll see what I mean. 
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Quoted:
I will have plenty of garden cucs but...I will have to slice em to get em in a jar and when I did that last year they were mushy. Tasted great, but I like my pickles crispy. I suppose I could pick em young. I may be wrong, and welcome correction from those who know more about it, but I don't think the variety of cucumber has nearly as much to do with crispiness of the end product as do getting them from vine to brine as quickly as possible, and water-bathing for as little time as possible. I've been in pursuit of the perfectly crisp homemade pickle myself for years, and haven't found it yet. I've tried grape leaves, Pickle Crisp, citric acid, and swinging a dead cat around my head three time in a graveyard at midnight, and... phbbt... mushy pickles. The best luck I've had so far is with BozemanMT's recipe posted here, which doesn't call for water-bathing the jars at all. Some will probably wail of botulism risk, but I fall into the "hey, it's mainly vinegar" camp myself. I've personally eaten those pickles at 1 year after storing on the shelf, and as far as I can tell I'm still mostly sound. It's most definitely an at-your-own-risk judgement, though. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
I will have plenty of garden cucs but...I will have to slice em to get em in a jar and when I did that last year they were mushy. Tasted great, but I like my pickles crispy. I suppose I could pick em young. I may be wrong, and welcome correction from those who know more about it, but I don't think the variety of cucumber has nearly as much to do with crispiness of the end product as do getting them from vine to brine as quickly as possible, and water-bathing for as little time as possible. I've been in pursuit of the perfectly crisp homemade pickle myself for years, and haven't found it yet. I've tried grape leaves, Pickle Crisp, citric acid, and swinging a dead cat around my head three time in a graveyard at midnight, and... phbbt... mushy pickles. The best luck I've had so far is with BozemanMT's recipe posted here, which doesn't call for water-bathing the jars at all. Some will probably wail of botulism risk, but I fall into the "hey, it's mainly vinegar" camp myself. I've personally eaten those pickles at 1 year after storing on the shelf, and as far as I can tell I'm still mostly sound. It's most definitely an at-your-own-risk judgement, though. You're right about that. I was taught that the bacterial spores of Clostridium botulinum cannot germinate in an acidic environment so foods pickled using vinegar are safe from botulism. From Wiki: Growth of the bacterium can be prevented by high acidity, high ratio of dissolved sugar, high levels of oxygen, very low levels of moisture or storage at temperatures below 3°C (38°F) for type A. For example in a low acid, canned vegetable such as green beans that are not heated hot enough to kill the spores (i.e., a pressurized environment) may provide an oxygen free medium for the spores to grow and produce the toxin. On the other hand, pickles are sufficiently acidic to prevent growth; even if the spores are present, they pose no danger to the consumer. Honey, corn syrup, and other sweeteners may contain spores but the spores cannot grow in a highly concentrated sugar solution; however, when a sweetener is diluted in the low oxygen, low acid digestive system of an infant, the spores can grow and produce toxin. As soon as infants begin eating solid food, the digestive juices become too acidic for the bacterium to grow.
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Quoted:
The longest I have been able to wait is 2 days and that was by refrigerating them. I just make sure I have enough plants to ensure a good pickle session. What also helps is to pickle other items simultaneously (like peppers). I had the same problem with lateness and just now noticed that you are from Kansas. Good luck with your pickling. My wife refrigerates the cucumbers in a bowl of water for a maximum of 2 days as well or they get eaten raw. We've had very crisp pickles. As others have pointed out, you cannot freeze them. They turn to mush.
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Early season when I only get a couple cucumbers at a time I just pick them, chop them into pickle slices, and drop them in an open pickle jar in the fridge.
They aren't exactly like pickles but they soak up enough of the vinegar to be good enough. You need to keep them refridgerated, but around here a jar of pickles is lucky to last 3-4 days anyways
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