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The day Fantôme Chocolat and I were scheduled to begin pickling the farm haul was a Saturday– the day I also pick up my CSA share at my CSA farm. I get an email every week, usually Tuesday or Wednesday, letting me know what I can expect as part of my share that week so I already knew that okra was on the list for the week. I was able to get up to 3 pounds of it if I wanted to.

Fantôme Chocolat is not a fan of okra. The mere mention makes him start to make faces. His brother-in-law, however, is a huge fan of okra. I have only had it once in a soup and was fairly indifferent toward it. Since The Joy of Pickling had a recipe to pickle it, of course, I thought I would see how it would go. At the very least, I figured Fantôme Chocolat’s brother-in-law would eat it so it wouldn’t go to waste.

The selection of okra was very good. I was able to find 1 pound of very small okra to pickle since from what I heard about pickling them you want to keep them on the small side.

In order to prepare them for pickling, we trimmed the stems then washed them well and rubbed them while washing to remove the prickly hair on the exterior. Just trimming the stems begins to release their trade mark “slime”. Between the slime and the the prickly hairs, Fantôme Chocolat is convinced this is Nature’s way of saying “Do Not Eat This!!”

For this recipe, the okra is placed in the jar with garlic, chili pepper, and dill seed. For the chili, I used a small yellow chili from my CSA share that is supposed to be quite hot.

The pickling liquid is cider vinegar, water and pickling salt. The jars are processed in a hot water bath and need to sit for about 3 weeks before sampling. 1 pound of okra yielded 5 half pint jars.

There was also a new u-pick on the list at the farm that day- Mexican Sour Cucumbers. I was intrigued. And, since I wasn’t doing any cucumbers… how much more effort would one more vegetable be. I asked what they were.

I was so glad I asked. It turns out Mexican Sour Cucumbers are among the cutest things in the world and I have renamed them cute-cumbers! They are so cute, the picture I took of them are now my banner photo for this web site.

Mexican Sour Cucumbers grow on a trellised vine. They are about the size of grapes and are colored like watermelons. They are crisp and tart and pack everything Fantôme Chocolat dislikes about cucumbers into a fraction of the size of a normal cucumber.

As soon as I tasted one I knew what they were destined to become- Hungarian Summer Pickles!

Yes, it is another Joy of Pickling recipe. It is not only tasty, but a fabulous recipe for the impatient or those leery of canning. This recipe produces a “half-sour” pickle. It is produced fermenting it in the sun for 5 days. Yes- fabulous tasty pickles in only 5 days! You can only store them for a few months (in the fridge) but you don’t have to wait weeks for them to be ready either. And I can tell you, using a half sour recipe on a sour cucumber was genius on my part. The pickles are sour, dilly and lovely. I was able to pick enough for 20 ounces, and I gave away all but 8 ounces (a 4 ounce jar to the people at the farm and an 8 ounce jar to an admirer of my cucumber pickles). I will be savoring those last 8 ounces.

Hungarian Summer Pickles involve water, dill (unfortunately every store in the area was out of fresh dill that weekend and I had to use dried), small amounts of red wine vinegar and pickling salt, and sunshine. In order to prevent the cucumbers from floating, you slit them lengthwise leaving their ends intact.

Okra and Cucumber totals (in pints):
Pickled Okra: 2.5 pints
Half-sour Mexican Sour Cucumber Pickles: 1.25 pints