We're still dealing with the harvest from our small backyard garden. Some of the cucumbers went into the handy-dandy Japanese pickle press that I still have from my macrobiotic days when I made pressed salads and such. It's very useful for making quick cucumber pickles that taste really good. All that's needed for these very basic pickles are cucumbers and salt. I also added half a small onion to this batch, but sometimes I layer cukes and onions equally. I also like to pickle cabbage, daikon radish, carrots and turnips. As the liquid is pressed from the vegetables, you can apply more pressure until the liquid rises above the veggies. It only takes a few hours. Then I pack the pickles into jars and keep them in the refrigerator. Sometimes I add other flavors to the jars such as vinegars, herbs and spices. If I've made a lot and plan to keep them more than a few days, I drain them and pack them into jars, and make a pickling brine to fill the jar.
