Buy some fresh pickling cucumbers and create your own homemade pickles.

Crunch time: Create your own delicious pickles with a classic canning recipe.

Directions:

Wash cucumbers.

Cut a 1/16-inch slice off the blossom end of the cuke and discard. Leave ¼ inch of stem attached.

Dissolve ¾ cup salt in 2 gallons water. Pour the mix over the cucumbers and let stand for 12 hours.

Drain. Combine vinegar, ½ cup salt, sugar, and 2 quarts water. Add the mixed pickling spices, tied in a clean white cloth. Heat this picking solution to boiling.

Fill hot, properly sterilized jars with cucumbers. Add 1 teaspoon mustard seed and 1½ heads fresh dill to each jar, and pour in enough boiling pickling solution to cover the cucumbers. There should be a ½ inch of space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar; add more solution if needed.

Remove all air bubbles from the jar by running a clean, nonmetal spatula around the inside of the jar. Wipe the jar rims with a dampened clean paper towel. Seal with hot, properly sterilized lids (review the Nickel Pincher's canning page for details). Process the jars of cucumbers by placing them in a pot or canner of boiling water: Boil 10 minutes for pints, 15 minutes for quarts. If you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet, you'll have to add 5 to 10 minutes to your boil time. The canner or pot you use must be deep enough so that at least an inch of boiling water covers the tops of jars during processing.

After you remove the hot jars from the canner, don’t retighten the lids or you could damage the seal. Let the jars cool at room temperature for 24 hours, on racks or towels. After a full 24 hours, remove the screw bands and test the seal by pressing the middle—if it pops back up, it’s not sealed correctly and you shouldn’t eat the pickles. (You can try to process the jars in boiling water again to get a correct seal.) Store the jars in a cool, dry place. Canned pickles are safe to eat as long as the seal remains intact; after opening a jar, refrigerate the uneaten portions. You can begin eating the pickles after they’ve been sealed for at least 24 hours, or wait longer to let the seasoning set. Keep a record of when you open each jar, and how the pickles taste, and you'll learn the optimum time for aging them.

If you're not familiar with canning, visit the USDA's canning page for more information.

For more of a challenge creating pickles that contain beneficial bacteria, learn how to make fermented pickles.