Dill Pickles

I got a fermentation crock for my brithday from Jeff. I made my first ever batch of dill pickles tonight from the recipe in Sandor Katz's book, Wild Fermentation.

I bought and bartered a bunch of City Fresh pickling cucumbers and garlic; picked backyard dill and grape leaves; and purchased pickling spices from Narrin's Spice and Sauce at the West Side Market.

I placed cloves from 2 heads of garlic, pickling spices and grape leaves in the bottom of the crock (the tanin in the grape leaves is supposed to keep the pickles crisp during fermentation).

I piled in clean, whole pickling cucumbers. I poured enough brine solution in to cover the cucumbers fully at 3/8 cup salt per 1/2 gallon of filtered water.

Next, I added the weighting stone and made sure that the brine covered the top. The last step was to put the lid on and fill the lip with water to make a water seal. The water seal lets gas bubbles from lactofermenation out, but not air or molds in. In about 2-4 weeks, we should have crunchy dill pickles.