You can use this basic quick-pickling recipe for just about any vegetable; try cherry tomatoes, onions, green beans, and nasturtium pods as well as cukes. Vary the herbs, spices, and salt according to your taste.

To keep the pickles crunchy, I generally add two rolled grape leaves for a quart jar of pickles and four for a large deli jar. The resulting pickles will be tasty and crunchy for at least six months. After then, they tend to soften, but are still safe to eat if refrigerated for up to a year.

Steps

1. Rinse and clean the pickling cucumbers (or any other vegetable that you are pickling) and the fresh herbs and spices. Small vegetables like cherry and grape tomatoes should be left whole; large vegetables should be sliced.
2. Roll the grape leaves tightly and tuck two leaves into the bottom of each quart jar. Peel and crush the garlic and divide it. Divide the dill as well, and place both garlic and dill in the jars. Add your spices (whole or tied in a cheesecloth pouch) and chiles, then pack in the cucumbers. Each jar should be ¾ full with cukes/vegetables.
3. Fill a non-reactive stockpot with the water, vinegar, and salt. Heat until the salt has dissolved. Just before it boils, remove from the heat.
4. Pour the hot liquid slowly into the pickle jars, leaving ½ inch at the top of each jar. Allow to cool, then cap and refrigerate the jars.
5. Your pickles will be ready to eat in three to four days.