Gherkins

1 kg gherkins, scrubbed making sure the blossom end is free of any blossom.
1/2 cup of plain salt dissolved in 4 cups of water
Washed grape leaves

Line non metallic bowl with grape leaves
Put gherkins in the bowl
Poor brine over the gherkins
Cover with more washed grape leaves.
Stand the gherkins in a cool place for roughly 5 days until gherkins turn yellow.
Put gherkins into colander to DRAIN.
Pack the gherkins into jars.

Boil for 5 minutes.
4 cups of white vinegar
1 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoons of black peppercorns
1 cm slice of root ginger
1 Tablespoon of whole allspice
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
1 clove of garlic
1 Tablespoon of mustard seeds
2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg.
Poor strained vinegar over gherkins and leave in a warm place until the gherkins turn olive green.
Poor vinegar off and re boil
Re fill the jars [ may need a little more vinegar ]
Put the lids on the jars , leave for a few weeks before eating.

This recipe looks like it is way to involved, but I tried all kinds of recipes as we grew gherkins to sell. Everyone would ask for my recipe. Like wise I asked all of my customers for there's. This was one of the best. I think now my little addition was dill seeds.

I did have one other method that near beat the above recipe, but I just cannot remember the entire recipe.
Once the gherkins were put into the vinegar and the gherkins sucked in like they had lost all moisture. I near discarded them but gave the Lady I got the recipe from a fear go and left them well alone.
They did suck up again to there original sizes, that is when I put a jar into the fridge and tried them. They were like biting into an apple straight from the tree. I do remember putting the gherkins into a brown paper bag prior to pickling, coz I thought that was a bit odd. They took months to swell up again.
I have thought . uli. may have helped out with the method as I felt they could have grown up together, I think I got that wrong.

Thanks for sharing your recipe, i plan on growing gherkins next season (never grown them before but i should do love me some gherkin! I could easily eat a whole jar! )

I love how you have lots of spices in your recipe, I'm curious about the grape leaves, what do they do? Thank you ( =

The grape leaves prevent the cucumbers from going soft. You can also use oak leaves, it is the tannin that works it magic apparently :) Has worked well for my fermented cucumbers.