Preserving food is a fundamental part of farming, this is a way to ensure that excess food can be treated and stored in a way that the food items can be consumed months after the fact - this comes in especially handy with seasonal produce and in some cases with all year crops that you have harvested and do not want to waste.

In this case a local fellow farmer had harvested some young cucumbers, and he decided to share some of his spoils with me. However 20kg of cucumbers were more than likely to go off before we could finish using them, so I shared what I had with some friends as well as the helpers on the farm, and I was still left with a bunch then I decided to try my hand at making gherkins with the remaining lot.

I started by pickling the baby cucumbers in a strong solution of salt water. This helps the rid the cucumbers of excess water, and the salt also serves as a preservative.

The next morning I started sterilizing the bottles that I was planning to use by boiling them together with their lids in warm water for a few minutes - this ensures that the bottles are clean and ready to use, the boiling water also kills any germs or fungal spores that can not be seen with the naked eye that might have manifested inside the bottles, this ensures that your product will not spoil prematurely once it has been bottled and shelved.

Then I sourced some herbs from the garden for the sauce, for this I used some all spice leaves as well as some fresh rosemary.

I made quite a large batch of sauce, but to simplify it for anyone that would like to try this on a smaller scale, I have reduced the recipe on here to a one liter batch.

To make 1 Liter of sauce:

I used 1/4 cup of sugar per one litter of white spirit vinegar, together with a pinch of salt.

I combined the vinegar and the sugar in a pot and stirred the mixture over medium heat until all of the sugar was dissolved, (If you enjoy a more sweet than sour taste you can increase the amount of sugar to taste)
Then I added the fresh all spice leaves and a twig of rosemary, I also added a 1/4 spoon of mustard seeds as well as a 1/4 spoon of coriander.

I increased the heat allowing the mixture to reach a boiling point and boiled it for five minutes continuously stirring, then I turned the heat down and let the mixture simmer for another 10-15 minutes before I removed it from the heat and allowed it to cool down.

Next I drained the salt water from the soaking cucumbers and rinsed them thoroughly. This is important because you don't want your gherkins to be excessively salty.

I then packed them very tightly into the sterilized jars, (I packed some whole, but I also did a few bottles with sliced cucumber) and placed the jars on a table tray, this is simply to catch any spillage.

Once the sauce had cooled down to slightly above room temperature, I started filling the bottles, I let them stand for a bit and tapped them with a knife handle on the side to make sure that there was no air-bubbles stuck in-between the cucumbers, then I topped up the bottles and tightly sealed them, wiped them and placed them lid side down on the table.

These sweet and sour delights are ready to eat after standing for 8 hours, but I have to tell you that allowing them to stand for a few days before you dig in certainly improves the taste. And the best part is that they can stand for up to a year after preserving - not that they ever last that long in my house...

This is just such a easy pickling recipe that I wonder why I don't do it more often :D