Easy Refrigerator Pickles

 

We have had an overflowing harvest of cucumbers in our garden this summer! It seems that many others are having the same experience in their gardens, too. 

In fact, it seemed by mid-July that our cucumbers (planted on the north end of our 10 x 30 foot veggie garden space), were on their way to take over the entire garden. We decided to put up a wire garden fence, stopping their path right before they overtook the tomato plants (in the foreground in the photo above). You can see the multitude of yellow flowers on the cucumber plants! 

We've been picking cucumbers for about four weeks now, and I knew I needed to try to preserve some of them. I ended up preserving about 23 small containers of cucumbers ... about half were put in the refrigerator, and the other half I've put in the freezer.

Click here for the Easy Refrigerator Pickles recipe that I used from Taste of Home (recommended to me by one of our sweet daughters). Several of the comments with the recipe mentioned that they do very well in the freezer, so besides using them as refrigerator pickles, I'm trying out the freezer option this year, as well. (Note: I did double the amount of brine suggested, just as our daughter also did, and as others had mentioned in their review of the recipe.)

They are really delicious, and have already been adding a tasty touch to some of our summer meals. We especially like using them on sandwiches that we often have for lunch.