Summer is full of conundrums. Pool or lake? Grill or chill? Hike or hammock? Among the biggest is how to eat all the season’s bounty while also saving it for the future. The answer is preserving, of course, and among the easiest methods is pickling.

This ancient method of storing food—it dates back thousands of years—has had a recent resurgence. It’s about getting back to basics, but also about delicious flavor and health benefits. Naturally fermented foods are loaded with lactic acid bacteria, also known as probiotics, which are microorganisms that help support our digestive systems. Fermentation expert Sandor Katz, a leading authority on traditional techniques, has several books worth consulting, including “The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World” and “Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.” Both, but especially the latter, are worthy investments for interested picklers.

Making pickles can be as simple as combining vegetables with salt and letting nature do the rest. This natural process, known as lacto-fermentation, allows probiotics to convert raw food into more easily digestible and beneficial components. Barrel-fermented dill pickles are a classic example of this, as is kimchi, the spicy tangle of fermented vegetables that appears on the table at every Korean meal. This colorful mix of cabbage, radish, garlic, chile, ginger, scallions and fish sauce is brined and then left at room temperature to ferment, converting the vegetables’ sugars into lactic and acetic acids and carbon dioxide. The result is magical, with funky flavors as complex as those of the finest French cheeses.

Perhaps my favorite summer pickle is the classic bread & butter. My preferred cucumber for this is the stubby, spiny Kirby, launched in 1920. Its sweet, mild flavor and super crunchy texture make it ideal for pickling. After slicing the cucumbers, I give them a good soak in salted ice water, a step recommended to prime them for pickling. The final result is slightly sweet and judiciously spiced, delivering a subtle kick from red chile and a beautiful golden hue from turmeric. They go beautifully with a grilled cheese sandwich and are absolutely essential with pulled pork.

Fruit, especially firm stone fruits, also makes wonderful pickles. When cherries are at their peak, I submit them to a three-day process of brining that preserves the texture of their crisp skin and juicy, silken flesh. Steeped in lightly sweetened cider vinegar spiked with coriander, chile and cardamom, they make a wonderful cocktail garnish and are the perfect condiment on a charcuterie plate.

Beyond produce, even meat and seafood can be pickled. When you come across fresh, wild-caught shrimp in the shell, consider making the spicy, vinegary marinade that is a favorite in South Carolina’s coastal Low Country. The shrimp are lightly poached and then allowed to sit overnight in an oily brine packed with parsley and sliced onion. They make an excellent hors d’oeuvre simply skewered with a toothpick, or a lovely first course piled atop a bed of crisp shredded lettuce.

Pickled Cherries

Makes 2 pints

4 cups sweet cherries, stemmed and pitted

1 cup apple cider vinegar


1/2 cup organic cane sugar


1/3 cup water


1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon coriander seeds

4 cracked cardamom pods

2 bay leaves

2 chiles de arbol

Day 1: Place the cherries in a bowl and cover with the vinegar. Cover the bowl with a towel or some cheesecloth and let the cherries soak overnight.

Day 2: Strain the vinegar into a nonreactive sauce pan and set the cherries aside. Add the sugar, water, salt and spices to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Once the brine is cool, pour over the cherries and cover the bowl again. Let them stand at room temperature for 3 days.

Day 5: Strain the pickling liquid into a nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and cool. Add the cherries to a warm, sterilized mason jar. Once the brine is cool, pour it over the cherries, completely covering them. Close the jar tightly with a nonreactive cap (either a plastic lid or a two-piece metal lid with a piece of parchment paper in between the jar and the lid).

Store in the fridge or another cool, dark place for at least 1 month before eating. Pickled cherries will keep well, even unrefrigerated, for about 1 year.