Most modern pickles are made with vinegar and sugar. But it hasn't always been this way. This week on the Local Food Report, Elspeth Hay talks with a couple in Western Massachusetts who make their cucumber pickles the old-fashioned way: by fermenting them with lacto-bacteria. It's a similar process to how yogurt or sourdough bread is made—the cultures are active on the surface of healthy vegetables, and with the addition of salt, will preserve cucumbers in a way that's both tasty and healthy.
You can learn more about pickling all kinds of vegetables using fermentation on Elspeth's blog, Diary of a Locavore. And you can click on the link to learn more about Dan Rosenberg and Addie Rose Holland's fermented food business, Real Pickles, and where to find them locally.
This piece is a rebroadcast. It originally aired July 12, 2012.