“I’m not trying to brag, but they are the best pickles I’ve ever had,” said my friend Aimee after I asked her a few clarifying questions about this process of preserving. Kayla had just spent the day at her house and wholeheartedly agreed – and she doesn’t exactly love pickles!I have only ever really canned apple butter, and I was scared of that whole process. Were the jars really sealed? Was I going to accidentally kill those people I gave these jars to as Christmas gifts? No one died, and it ended up being a rewarding endeavor, so when I started hearing about Nourishing Traditions and this idea of fermentation as preservation, I was interested. Not only because I end up with a lot of veggies to do something with every summer, but also because of the health benefits and digestion aids that fermented foods produce.
So, the first step in the lacto-fermenting of fruits and vegetables is to make whey. A bit of whey will be put into the jar to aid in the fermentation process. As shown above, you accomplish this by pouring plain (I used whole milk) yogurt into a dishcloth lined strainer over a bowl. ( I feel very fortunate to be able to get local, from grass fed cows, yogurt. Really, I live in the land of “local” and it has many benefits!) The whey is the yellowish liquid part that drips from the strainer into the bowl. What you’ll have left in the cloth is cream cheese. Below you can see the finished products – cream cheese on the left, and whey on the right.
Next, I sliced cucumbers to fill 4 quart sized mason jars. Two of the jars used cukes from our farm co-op, and in two I used the cukes from my own garden! (Last year I got NO cucumbers, this year I have more than I can use!) Then I mixed (this recipe is straight from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, p.97) 1 1/2 cups filtered water, 1 Tbsp sea salt, 1 Tbsp mustard seed, two Tbsp fresh dill, and 4 Tbsp whey in a small bowl and then poured it all over the cut cucumbers in the jar.
They are supposed to sit on the counter at room temperature for 2 days, and then be stored in the refrigerator or somewhere that stays close to 40 degrees – root cellar, cave, etc. 🙂 They are ready to eat after the two days on the counter, and they will last several months in cold storage. I also made a salsa, and beets using the same method!

Scientists and doctors today are mystified by the proliferation of new viruses-not only the deadly AIDS virus but the whole gamut of human viruses that seem to be associated with everything from chronic fatigue to cancer to arthritis. They are equally mystified by recent increases in the incident of intestinal parasites and pathogenic yeasts, even among those whose sanitary practices are faultless. Could it be that abandoning the ancient practice of lacto-fermentation and an insistence on a diet in which everything has been pasteurized we have compromised the health of our intestinal flora and made ourselves vulnerable to legions of pathogenic microorganisms? Nourishing Traditions, p.91