Homemade pickles

I like pickles but I don't like vinegars very much, so I choose fermentation instead of making acidy vinegary foods. The process of fermentation not only helps to preserve food, it breaks food nutrients down into more digestible forms, improves the bioavailability of minerals, and creates new nutrients including B vitamins (folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, and biotin). Fermented foods are also live foods, full of beneficial bacteria.

We are trained in our culture to think of bacteria as bad, but what John and I have learned is that many bacteria actually live symbiotically within our bodies and a healthy population of these beneficial bacteria is vital to good health.

Eating our pickles in fermented form carries these beneficial bacteria directly to our digestive systems where they greatly aid digestion.







Wash the cucumbers, cut off both ends. Cut the cucumbers lengthways twice sticking in a little sharp knife ? like you would cut in four ? but not going all the way through. Then put them in a bigger jar tightly, put among the cucumbers the garlic cloves and pepper. Put the dill on the top then the peeled and sliced potato.

Dissolve the salt in a little bowl in some boiling water, pour onto the cucumbers, then fill the jar with water to cover. Put the jar on a sunny place for about 3-4 days covered lightly.

Let the cucumber ferment until their colour become olive green and the brine opalescent. Then strain the brine, wash cucumbers in cold water, place them in a jar along with garlic pour onto the brine and keep in the refrigerator.