At the market: Pickling cucumbers

At the Market is a weekly look at produce available at local farmers markets.

Pickling cucumbers are simply tiny cucumbers, picked while young and tender and best for making pickles.

Almost anything can be pickled: cucumbers, watermelon rind, pig’s feet, eggs, beets. Pickling is simply the process of preserving a food in vinegar or a salty brine. All kinds of seasoning can be added to the preserving liquid, and of course dill is a popular flavoring for the classic dill pickle.

So now, how to pickle?

Salt pickling takes place naturally as the food in the brine ferments in an anaerobic (oxygenless) environment, thus producing lactic acid. It’s this acid that preserves the food; spoiling microbes and damaging organisms can’t live in the acidic environment. This is how sauerkraut is made.

Vinegar pickling accomplishes the same goal by providing all the acid itself, so vinegar-pickled foods are not fermented. They also require less time, and cucumbers can be pickled in a week or two.

Pickling cucumbers usually start showing up at farmers markets in mid-July, so if you were expecting them earlier in the season, you may want to look again now (blame Oregon’s wet spring for the delay). Choose cukes that are free of bruises and are firm and crisp. Bumps and knobs on the fruit are perfectly normal.

I already made a big batch of dill pickles this year, and they are delicious. But with a new batch of cucumbers at hand, I think I’ll make a jar or two of bread-and-butter pickles, a sweet treat that is delicious on sandwiches or as a snack.