Easiest Pickles Ever!

A couple of weeks ago, my son John and I were at a local farmer's market and bought some homemade pickles from B'more Bill's Dills, they were called "Half Sours".  I had never heard of half sours before and questioned the gentleman extensively on the process because the pickles were quite yummy.  The pickles we bought had a crunchy, garlicky flavor but did not have vinegar or dill, which after eating a couple of pickles, I started to miss.  I started my search for a pickle recipe, I didn't want to make another mushy, flavorless cooked pickle.  I started seeing a lot of recipes for refrigerator pickles, I've never heard of refrigerator pickles.  A refrigerator pickle isn't cooked, it's soaked in a briney juice and kept in the fridge instead of canning and hot water bathing.  After reading several recipes and instructions, I got the gist of it.  Below is my recipe, I like it because it's easy to increase/decrease depending on your cucumber supplies.

Basic Dill Refrigerator Pickles

6 Cups Water
2 Cups Vinegar
1/2 Cup Salt
Onion  (1.5 medium)
Garlic  (8-10 cloves)
Fresh Dill  (1 oz. prepackaged fresh dill)
Cucumbers

Brine:  Bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil.  Turn the burner off after the mix is boiling and the salt is dissolved.

Pickles:  Scrub your cucumbers.  You can leave your cucumbers whole (if you're using pickling cucumbers - because they are small enough, just cut off the bloom end), or slice them however you like.  We did spears and slices.  The grocery store didn't have pickling cucumbers so we bought regular cukes and sliced them.  We had also bought some pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market that we cut into spears.   

After you're done slicing (or not) your cucumbers, slice your onion and garlic and break all the stems off your dill.  These are the quantities I used and how much I yielded from it, you can change the recipe according to your taste.  I used 5 regular cucumbers and got 2.5 quarts of pickle slices and 8 pickling cucumbers that we cut into quarters for spears and that made 2 pints.  I used 1.5 medium size onions and 8-10 cloves of garlic.  Hope that is helpful.

When you're done slicing everything, start layering them in the jars:  cucumber, onion, garlic and dill.  I put onion, garlic and dill on the bottom of the jar, layered in cucumbers till the jar was half full, added more onion, garlic and dill and filled the jar with more cucumber slices, then added more onion garlic and dill on the top.  After that you take your brine and fill the jar to the top.  Continue until you're out of cucumbers.  I did run out of brine but quickly mixed up a quarter of the recipe to fill the last jar.

Let the jars sit on the counter for a few hours (3-4), then stick them in the fridge.  They are ready to eat in 3-4 days. 

We couldn't resist and had to try them - they are delicious!

Have a blessed day, I'm off to water the garden!