Kitchen note: Pickling Notes for Crunchy Homemade Vegetables is written for home cooks who want practical, seasonal food ideas without wasting ingredients or time. Use these notes as a starting point for fresher meals, better pantry planning, and simple weeknight cooking.
The pickling cucumbers are here and it’s time to make pickles! My mother taught me how to make these dill pickles. It was part of every summer of my childhood. I get a little nostalgic over the smell of boiling vinegar, garlic and dill. It is a lot of work, but the reward is well worth the effort! I grow my own pickling cucumbers because that way I can pickle them when they are fresh. Pickling cucumbers are different from salad cucumbers, which are sweeter and milder – and they have smooth skin. Pickling cucumbers are bumpy and warty and sometimes can be too bitter to eat raw. I also grow the dill and the garlic, both of which grow easily here in Utah.
