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Pickles and ferments
All Containers›Shop by use case›Pickles and ferments›Getting started›The first season, month by monthShop all pickles and ferments →
Getting started

The first season, month by month

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page4
The cucumbers set the calendar and the ferment sets a second one inside it. The regulatory work has to be done before both, because it is the only part with a lead time you do not control.

Before the season

Everything here has to be finished before cucumbers arrive, because once they do you will not have time and they will not wait. A picking window is short, and it does not move to suit a pH meter that turned out to be uncalibrated or a process authority who has not replied yet. This section is work done while nothing is urgent, precisely so it is finished when everything is.

  • Talk to your state and to a process authority. Describe the product fully, including every ingredient.
  • Settle whether you are fermenting, quick pickling, or both. They are different processes with different paperwork.
  • Calibrate the pH meter against buffers, on a bench, at room temperature.
  • Order jars, lids and vinegar. Cases take time and arrive on a pallet.
  • Order labels last, after the jar and the net weight are settled.

During the window

This is the short part of the year and the only part that cannot be rescheduled. Cucumbers go from field to brine quickly: a long lapse between harvest and brining is a named cause of both hollow and shriveled pickles, so the thing to optimize here is speed rather than batch size. This is the one preserving craft where the clock starts in the field rather than in the kitchen, and it is the reason growers who pickle their own do better than makers buying in.

  • Brine on the day where you can. The published problem tables name delay specifically.
  • Start ferments early in the window so they finish inside it.
  • Log every batch as you go. It is the only diagnostic you will have.

After it

Months of selling against weeks of making is the shape of this business, which is why storage is not an afterthought. A jar made in August has to be the same product in May, and the failures that appear months later are storage failures rather than process failures. The ferments complicate this further, because a live product continues to change in the jar and its shelf life is a different question from a quick pickle’s. Decide early which of the two you are storing, because they do not want the same room.

References

United States Department of Agriculture. Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 6: Preparing and Canning Fermented Foods and Pickled Vegetables. Revised 2015, National Center for Home Food Preservation. nchfp.uga.edu
National Center for Home Food Preservation. Named-problem tables for fermented pickles and for pickled foods. nchfp.uga.edu
Written from federal regulation and published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. An acidified food is a federal category with a filed process behind it, and your state enforces it. Anything here is a starting point for a conversation with your state department of agriculture and a process authority, not a determination that you comply.