This recipe can be split into 2 – 64 oz glass jars or placed into a 128 oz jar.

Wash and brush the cucumbers with a simple castile liquid soap and then dry them very well so there’s no chlorinated tap water left on the vegetables (which will interfere with fermentation).

Place 3-4 lbs of cucumbers into the 128 oz glass jar. Add ½ to 1 cup of brine, 10-15 bay leaves to keep the cucumbers crunchy. The tannins in the leaves help keep the vegetables crunchy (since they are being submerged in water and can get soggy). Bay leaves also help with subtle pickling flavor. Bay leaves are medicinal and help with digestion.

Add 4 tablespoons of pink or gray salt. Add 7 garlic cloves crushed with a garlic hand crusher. Add 6 tablespoons of pickling spice blend (recipe below). Add filtered water (non chlorinated since besides being carcinogenic, chlorine will kill the bacteria needed to ferment the vegetables) until the jar’s neck. Take the full cabbage leaf and use it to keep the cabbage pieces below the water line. Add a bit of water to cover the full cabbage leaf. Place a cover on top. Best to place a big glass cover that will keep bugs out but not the toxic metal cover that comes with the Ball jar since the liquid will bubble and will come in contact with the inside of the cover and draw toxins into the brine. The jar should stay at room temperature (like on the countertop). You can use the original cover once the ferment is over by first spilling out some of the brine so brine won’t come into contact with the cover.

It takes 6-8 days to ferment at room temperature. In warmer weather, fermentation is faster.

You should check every 2 days and then every day as the ferment is almost finished to make sure all vegetables are below the waterline. If vegetables rise above the waterline, mold can grow. And then the batch is not edible. Most of the time, white yeast will grow if vegetables aren’t fully submerged. They are safe to eat but will make the vegetables taste soft by damaging the consistency. You can save your batch if you catch it fast enough by wiping it off with a towel or scooping it out with a spoon and adding a bit of fresh filtered water to make sure the vegetables are still fully submerged.

Once the fermentation is finished (the vegetables taste sour enough for you), place them in the fridge and they will last a few months. If you want to make changes to the saltiness or spices, wait until the brine settles in the fridge for 24h and retaste the vegetables before adding it to the brine.