Boy are we glad to be back at this spot again! The cukes have started to pack on by the dozen, so it’s time for our first pickle batch of the season!
We are anything but city folk here, but I will tell you that we’re deeply inspired by the historic pickle culture out of the lower east side of New York City. It was here that the legendary half-sour and full-sour lacto-fermented pickling technique really came into popularity, giving birth to the kosher dill. While the pickle trade is a shred of what it was back in the day, the remnants of this burgeoning industry can still be found today.
We’re well versed in the various pickling techniques, but fermented pickles are always a “must have” around here. They do take a bit longer than your more “traditional” vinegar based pickles, but its totally worth the time if you’re a fan of these historic deli pickles.
Many of you may have only experienced vinegar based pickles as these certainly dominate the modern commercial scene. Lacto-fermented pickles are instead made from a salt brine, which encourages the growth of lactobacillus that naturally occurs on the produce. This bacteria converts sugars into lactic acid, giving the pickle a different, but still quite sour quality. This acid also subsequently preserves the pickle.
In the fermented pickle world, you basically have half-sour and full-sour variants. The primary difference between them is the fermentation time, with half-sours being ready in about a week and full-sours often fermenting for several weeks. The technique is flexible, allowing the crafter to develop their pickles entirely to taste and preference. Once the desired taste is achieved, they are put into the fridge which significantly slows down the fermentation process and “locks in” the flavor profile.
While fermentation has certainly seen recent revival, it’s anything but a new preservation technique. Lacto-fermentation could be described as the “OG refrigerator,” with the practice being used as far back as 2400 BC in ancient Mesopotamia. Though a half-sour pickle may have a life span of a few weeks, a full-sour pickle can hold up for a year (and probably more) in the refrigerator.
We hope to inspire people to get into fermentation, it’s really quite an easy and safe preservation process. Plus, it develops natural probiotics that are good for your digestive system. Though it seems intimidating at first, once you’ve done it a few times, you realize there’s almost nothing to it. It’s far easier than something like canning and requires minimal tools to get into. You don’t “need” the fancy air locks and such like we have, you can do this in a crock, a regular jar or other glass vessel.
This won’t be the end of our pickle adventures! We do a lot of things with our cucumbers, but pickles are definitely a favorite around here!
