Spacemaster 80 is great for slicing, not so great for pickling. For the best-quality pickles, you need to use a pickling type. There are some bush pickling types. Bush Pickler is one.

I've only grown slicers in containers. I grow picklers in the ground because I grow so many in order to get enough to make a lot of pickles at one time.

You can start your seeds indoors or sow them directly into your container outdoors once the soil temp reaches 70 degrees and stays there.

If you plant them in a rich soil-less mix with lots of compost or humus content, they will not necessarily need fertilizer. If they do, you can use an organic fert like liquid fish emulsion or liquid seaweed or whatever else you have handy.

If it is a hot summer (and how can we know ahead of time?), I'd only put one plant per pot in a 5-gallon container. I've put three bush slicers in a 20-gallon molasses feed tub before and that tub was overflowing with plants and cukes. It was a milder summer, and it was pretty long ago. (Around here the words "mild" and "summer" don't seem to meet up very often, except when we are engaging in wishful thinking.)

You harvest them when they are the size you want for the pickles you need. I like to harvest them at 3 to 5" in length, or smaller if I'm making little gherkins.

Recipes are available from the National Center for Home Food Preservation or in the Ball Blue Book.

When you get close to pickle-making time, remind me and I'll look in a book I have of small batch preserving recipes. It has recipes that can be made with as few as 2 to 5 lbs. of cucumbers and that produce yields as small as 6 pints instead of the more typical 9 pints or 7 quarts.

There are plenty of easy quick pickle recipes. We like pickles, so I pickle huge numbers of cukes in good cucumber years. I try to pickle two years' worth of pickles in one year so I only have to make pickles every other year.

There's also some longer recipes where you ferment the pickles in a crock over a period of days or weeks, but I assume you're wanting to make the quick pickles that just take a few hours (and with some pickling recipes you soak the cucumbers overnight before you make the pickles).

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickling How-To From the NCHFP

Oh, wow, thanks Dawn! Will read and bookmark your link for future reference. I will get the pickling variety then for that purpose. My mom used to can pickles, and I remember how good they were. It's making my mouth water.

I love most vegetables because I was raised on them from gardens either my dad had or others in town. In a small town, people shared and traded a lot of veggies. My mom canned a lot of things. It had kind of become a lost art almost over the last several years, but I think it is picking up speed again with lots of people starting their own gardens.

This is kind of like a "bucket list" garden this year. I have to prove to myself that I can grow a few veggies, and can a few things as well. God willing and the creek don't rise, as my dad used to say.

Susan

Dawn, do you make your own pickling spice or purchase a pre-made one? If so, what is the best, IYO?

Susan

Well, another question that I hope you see. I was at Horn's today to get my Chicken Manure, and looked thru their seed rack. I picked up a pack of a variety called 'Homemade Pickles'. Do you think that will work?

Thanks, Dawn. If I need to get another pack, I will, based upon your recommendations.

Susan

Susan,
Last summer I wanted to make some quick, easy pickles and wasn't quite ready to jump into the full process so I found a Microwave Bread and Butter Pickles recipe that gave me great results. I posted it on the forum, and I'll link the thread here. This thread had some other good recipes in it as well. The microwave recipe that I used isn't for long-term storage, they must be stored in the refrigerator. The pickles were delicious and crisp (the fact that they were so crisp kind of surprised me considering the microwave method!) and so easy to make. I did use pickling cucumbers although I don't remember the exact name of them right now.

Suzie

Here is a link that might be useful: Your favorite pickle recipes?

Susan,

Homemade Pickles is fine., I grow it some years, but in recent years have grown County Fair and H-19 Little Leaf more.

I usually make my own pickling spice blend from raw ingredients purchased in bulk and the blend varies with the recipe being used, but there's nothing wrong with buying a package of pickling spice. I don't know what kinds you see in stores there, and I haven't bought a pre-blended pickling spice mix in years, except for the one from Pendery's.

I generally buy the spices in bulk from Pendery's, which I've linked below. If we're in Fort Worth, we just stop by their store near the hospital district or I order online if we aren't going to be in Fort Worth visiting family any time soon and I need the spices.

I make several different pickle recipes that require different spice blends, so it just makes sense to have the raw materials on hand to whip up whichever blend goes with a specific recipe. I have bought their blend too to use in a year when I was pickling like mad and too tired to be picky about the pickling spice blend.

The Mrs. Wages' mixes are quick and easy and when we used them, we liked them.

If you have a specific "memory" of a pickle flavor from homemade pickles that someone you knew made in the past, you may or may not be able to replicate it.

Finally, don't wait until the week that everyone has cukes ready for pickle-making and decide you will buy spices then. At our stores here, they sell out of pickling spice, Mrs. Wage's, pickling jars, etc. the first week or two that everyone's cucumbers are ready to pickle.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickling Spice Blend At Pendery's

Suzie, I would love to try the microwave method, but my microwave is a cheap, low voltage one, and cooks most everything unevenly. I'd be afraid to use it, both for safety and for other reasons like flavor and texture.

I saw some other quick pickle recipes on the web. Do you have to be as careful with these recipes as you do with the others?

I really want to make Kosher Dills (will Dill and garlic) rather than regular Dills, and, of course, the B&B pickles.

Thanks for the great advice and the link, too!

Susan

Dawn's advice about not waiting until everyone is ready to start making pickles to buy the spices is right on. I found that out last year the hard way :).

Suzie

Susan,

Yes, you have to be careful with pickle recipes that are for refrigerator pickles or microwave pickles. Anyone can post a recipe online and that doesn't mean it is safe or has been tested for safety. Pickles that are not processed via canning can harbor micro-organisms, including the ones that cause Listeriosis, which can be very serious, particularly for pregnant women. In some people, listeriosis can progress to meningitis and even brain abcesses. Most of these micro-organisms that can grow in unprocessed pickles are invisible and don't cause obvious food spoilage, but can make people very ill and can be deadly in some cases, so before using any recipe you find anywhere, make sure it meets all the safety standards.

The Listeria mynocytogenes bacteria can grow in pickles in the refrigerator if they were not properly processed/canned.

I have seen unsafe recipes printed in national magazines that generally enjoy a fine reputation in recent years. I'll be reading one of those recipes and shaking my head and telling Tim "watch for the retraction/correction in the next issue" and an issue or two later, there it will be. With the resurgence of popularity of canning, a lot of people are not doing due diligence and posting/printing safety-approved recipes. That is very dangerous.

One thing that really bothers me is when people say that they will continue using unsafe practices "because I haven't killed anyone yet". That just horrifies me and I equate it will playing Russian roulette with people's lives.

Suzie, I learned that one the hard way myself a long time ago. Nowadays, as soon as the canning products start appearing on the aisles, I stock up on everything I think I'll need for the entire season. A couple of years ago when I had the incredible fruit season, I bought enough pectin to last me forever because the stores had it sometimes, and didn't have it other times, so I bought it every time I was in the store. Ultimately, I had quite a few boxes left over. Now I am hoping I'll be able to use it up before it expires this summer!

I've linked an article that covers the refrigerator pickle issue pretty well. I hate that they aren't considered safe any longer. When I was a teenager I worked in a restaurant and made refrigerator pickles for it every week. You cannot do that nowadays.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Safety of Unprocessed Pickles/Refrigerator Pickles

Dawn, I remember you hoarding that pectin. LOL If all of the hab seed that I planted germinates, I will need to buy a sugar plantation for all the pepper jelly I plan to make. Just talking about it makes me want cream cheese and pepper jelly and now I have Al's 98 year old grandmother hooked on it too.