What to do with pickling cucumbers that have gotten too big? Either feed them to the porkers or make pickle relish. My neighbor friend Francie had this problem of too big cukes, but no time and no pigs, so last night I experimented with these cukes she generously dropped off. Delicious and easy pickle relish was the result.

When pickling cucumbers get too large, they can be bitter.

Without a food processor this would be a daunting task.

Process first the cloves of about one and a half head of garlic. Next process the fresh dill. I used what I had on hand, which was about 2 cups of fresh dill.

Dump the dill and garlic into a bowl, and then process 4 onions.

Cut the tip ends off the cucumbers and cut them into chunks to make them process easier. I used about 15 or so. Process them with the pulse button on the food processor until they are finely minced, but not too small. I filled up my machine four times with cucumbers for this batch.

Stir well and add two tablespoons real salt.

My batch of liquid fire is pretty hot this time, so I started with one big spoonful. If you don’t have liquid fire already made and in your fridge, you could process fine some hot peppers.

I added some dill seed, coriander seed and since I was out of mustard seed I added my hot mustard, which I have forgotten how I made it because I never did a post on it.

Add honey for as sweet as you want it, and I added more liquid fire and more salt.

Adding horseradish leaves to ferments insures they will stay crunchy. Grape leaves also work. Horseradish is very easy to grow, and you can just plant a horseradish root you buy from the grocery store and it will grow quickly. It also grows wild almost everywhere.

Cut the leaves in sections.

I like to use horseradish to top off my ferment jars because the ribs are firm and will remain under the lip of the jar, holding all the contents under the brine.

Place the sections inside the jars and fold the leaves down, pressing down carefully so the liquid rises to the top.

I did not want to add kefir whey like I usually do because there already was a lot of liquid.

Keep your jars at room temperature for three to 10 days or so, until you see it getting nice and bubbly, then place in the refrigerator.