hi
in today's video
i'm gonna show you how i pickle
my cucumber harvest
plus i will give you three essential tips
on how to grow your own backyard cucumbers
so welcome to the authentic garden ing channel
where we learn all things about plants
and explore our relationship with plants
such as cooking them, eating them growing them
or plain admiring them
this is my harvest from yesterday and today
that's a lot
i have two cucumber patches
this is the newer one and it is doing great
it is buzzing with bees and full of little fruit
that will be ready to pick within the next few days
to grow cucumbers abundantly three
things are essential
plant cucumber seeds 2 to 3 times in the season
pick off older leaves
and leaves that get buried inside the vine
and make sure you have enough pollinators
visiting your garden at all times
cucumbers are fast growing and in two months
the vine becomes old, easily infected with mildew and
aphids, and does not produce that much fruit anymore
so by then make sure you have a new batch of plants
ready for production
and pull out the old vines to stop the spread
of bugs and disease
always pull off the old leaves for the same
reason of stopping the possible infestation and
to open up airways for the pollinators to get into the flowers
have a variety of flowering plants in your garden
so that pollinators do not forget to visit you at all times
okay now on to the pickling
these are actually pickling cucumbers
picked young and tender
you can pick them even when they're
smaller than this
and by the way they're great in salads
sometimes they get bitter at the darker end
that's been attached to the vine
all you'll need to do is cut
this piece, this end off
they're still good for pickling just cut off the bitter end
a little bitterness will dissipate and
will not ruin your pickles
i use himalayan salt
you can use
any kind of salt table or sea or celtic
or whatever salt is salty is just fine
garlic is a must in my opinion
other things i pickle with my cucumbers
are tomatoes and sweet peppers,
arugula leaves
all these add flavor and can be eaten later pickled
you can also add celery sticks
horseradish or parsley leaves
spices: i use bay leaf, dill seeds
whole black peppercorns, a little chili flakes
and some coriander seeds, preferably
whole
and of course you will need jars with tight lids
i use this year after year
before i use them now again i will
sterilize them for about 20-30 minutes
using the steam cooker
meanwhile i will wash my vegetables
and cut cucumbers in halves
you don't need to -
i just like my pickles in this size
i will also boil some water for the
brine
our sterilized jars are ready to be loaded now
first put in all the spices and garlic
then load in peppers, greens,
cucumbers and tomatoes
pack it in tightly to utilize the space
as best as possible
add boiling water to your jars
now have the exact amount of water that we need for the brine
pour it all out in a separate pot
add a little more to consider evaporation
add two full tablespoons of salt per one
quart of pickles approximately
and bring it to boil again to dissolve all the salt
pour the boiling hot brine into the packed jars
and close the lids tightly
we have our jars loaded now
make sure that they do not leak
so that no brine is pouring out of it
after my jars cool down i put them in the fridge
because i'm not very comfortable leaving
them at room temperature
in about a week or two they start
changing color
see here how this jar cucumbers are more pale
couple weeks and you can open the jar
and taste your cucumbers if it is too
salty for you
you can pour off some brine and add
cold fresh water so it will extract some
extra salt from
the pickles good luck pickling and if
you have any questions please
write me in the comments and i will try
to answer every comment i receive
thank you for watching
and i'll see you in the next video
you
