Refrigerator Pickles; the adventures begin

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Our adventure begins on the day before groceries. You know, when the snack inventory is at an all-time low and your options are limited? Anyway, for some odd reason, I remember thinking about refrigerator pickles and wondering if they’re hard to make.


Though I’d watched my mother and grandmother make pickles many times I really had no idea where to start. 
I wanted simpler than what I’d witnessed and I didn’t want to wait weeks or months to eat them. Plus I only wanted to make two jars.
 So off to the pantry I went in search of pickling vinegar and spices. Yay! I had both. But, what to pickle? Though there were slim pickings for fresh veggies, I had carrots and garlic.


Ultimately I decided to make pickled carrots for the first time ever and they turned out great. In fact, both jars were gobbled down in less than two days.



I’m currently waiting for the latest batch of refrigerator pickles to soak up some flavour. This time I’m pickling carrots, green onions & radishes together, and I had enough pickle brine leftover to test a bonus jar of cauliflower too.

Refrigerator Pickles Recipe

You’ll need:

  • 10 cloves of garlic
  • 3 Carrots
  • 18 Green Onions
  • 3 tablespoons of dry pickling spices
  • 2 sprigs of fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon of dried dill or dill weed)
  • 2 tablespoons of salt
  • 1 heaping tablespoon sugar (I used golden brown)
  • 2 cups of water
  • 2 cups of pickling vinegar
  • 2 two cup jars with lids

Clean and prepare carrot sticks, and trim the green onions to the right height for the jars. Measure spices, salt, and sugar into a dish then mix together. For my first batch of pickles I didn’t have fresh dill so I used dried dill weed and mixed it in with the other spices. Place a sprig of fresh dill in each jar.

Poured vinegar and water into a pot, add spices, salt & sugar and garlic cloves. Cook on medium while stirring until brine begins to mildly boil. Remove from burner and set aside to cool slightly.

Remove garlic cloves from the pickled brine and put 5 at the bottom of each jar then stuff the jars with veggies. Pour the warm brine into the jars and let them sit until cooled; then refrigerate.

That’s my second batch in the video above. Following the same recipe, I pickled carrots, green onions and radishes together and made a jar of cauliflower pickles. Funnily enough, the radishes turned white and the brine turned pink. They still tasted good though

I’m not sure why I was thinking about refrigerator pickles in the first place 🤔 Though, come to think of it now, I suppose it’s because at the time my tummy was rumbling and I was looking for a snack.

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