Pickles are a fun food. They make our lips pucker, are delicious served icy cold and can even be found on a stick! But when I looked into what’s in many of the jarred pickles, my lips puckered for another reason entirely…artificial colors & high fructose corn syrup – in the DILL pickles. That’s right. Many of our go-to brands are in need of a ingredient check.
Several years ago I was inspired by the idea of “Sun Pickles” on a website, www.mountain-breeze.com. Unfortunately the site is no longer there, but the idea left a lasting impression and my children and I have made our own version the last couple of summers. Last weekend, we found lots of Kirby cucumbers at the farmers market. We loaded up, toted them home and pulled out our old sun tea jar. What a fun summer activity with the kids! We picked herbs and peppers from the garden, the kids measured and poured, and we had dill pickles ready to cook in the sun.
Feel free to adjust this recipe to your tastes – we did. Like them more on the mild side? Use fewer peppers. Love the garlic? Toss in a few more cloves. Prefer a sweeter pickle? Add a bit of raw sugar, agave or honey. This recipe is a blank canvas that you and your kids can paint in the summer sun.
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Vlasic Kosher Dill Baby Wholes
- Cucumbers
- Water
- Distilled Vinegar
- Salt
- Calcium Chloride*
- Polysorbate 80*
- Natural Flavor
- Yellow 5*
- Potassium metabisulfite* (preservative)
- Fresh Cucumbers
- Water
- Distilled Vinegar
- Salt
- High Fructose Corn Syrup*
- Dried Garlic
- Calcium Chloride*
- Sodium Benzoate* (to preserve flavor)
- Spice
- Mustard Seed
- Natural Flavor
- Dried red peppers
- Polysorbate 80*
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Out of the Box FoodSM Garlic-Dill Sun Pickles
Special Equipment: Sun tea jar or large glass jar with lid
Ingredients:
- whole Kirby cucumbers (or other pickling cucumbers)
- 2 cups distilled vinegar
- 5 cups water
- 1/2 cup Kosher Salt
- 1 bunch fresh dill
- 10 cloves garlic (more or less to your tastes)
- 2-4 jalapeno peppers, halved lengthwise
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp whole peppercorns
Directions:
- Wash cucumbers well and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix vinegar, salt and water together.
- Fill large glass jar with cucumbers, layering in dill, peppers and garlic. Add peppercorns and mustard seeds.
- Pour vinegar mixture over cucumbers.
- Seal jar with lid, shake and place in the sun.
- Leave pickle jar outdoors in a sunny spot for 4-6 days. Shake jar each day.
- Refrigerate finished pickles.
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Until next week…
What happens if the timing is off and there is no sun, like right now in Michigan. It has rained every day since I made my sunpickles. Will they be ok without the sun? Thanks!!
Wow, this will be fun for my kids to make with me, thanks Kim! I noticed your recipe doesn’t have sugar in it, I have a few recipes but they require sugar so I’m glad to have a recipe that has none 🙂
I am very excited to try this…one question, do you seed the jalapenos or leave the seed in when you put them in with the cucumbers? Thanks for all the healthier recipes. Can adapt lots of them for my 2 year old celiac daughter. You’re a god-send. 🙂
Thank you so much for the sweet comment and question, Jocelyn! For the jalepenos – I did not seed them. I just cut them in half (length-wise) and tossed them in. If you’d prefer a little less heat, you can seed them. But even with the seeds I don’t consider them too spicy for kids. Enjoy!
We’re making these today. Can’t wait. Thanks again for the recipe. My girls (3 and 2) are so excited, we’ll be making these to eat in a few days and we’re also making your out of the box corn dogs for lunch. My girls love to help me cook and I appreciate all the fun recipes you’ve given to help include our children in the kitchen. 🙂
Thank you, Jocelyn! Sounds like a fun day with your kids!
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