Homemade Refridgerated Pickle Spears

I haven’t had much luck growing cucumbers in my garden, so I prefer to just buy them from the Farmers Markets during the summer.   Recently I picked up some small cucumbers (4-6″ long) with the intent of making Homemade Refrigerated Pickle Spears.   I love the long pickles that come with meals at restaurants, but they can be so expensive to purchase from the grocery store.  While searching online I found a recipe that I just had to try.  The recipe was posted on the blog Glue Sticks. My favorite part of her recipe was that it only required a few ingredients.  Some recipes I came across had ingredients I’ve never heard of, let alone could never find in the grocery store.  The whole process only took about 30 minutes to make the pickles.  Once you have them in the jars, just put in the refrigerator for one week.  After the week is up, open and enjoy. Thanks again to Glue Sticks for creating such a great (easy) recipe!  Below are some photos of the process.

After slicing the cucumbers in quarters, I packed them into the canning jars.

The recipe called to add some pepper flakes, garlic, and fresh dill.

A hot mixture of vinegar, water, and salt was  added before the top was put on.