Can Chickens Eat Bananas? Benefits, Risks & Feeding Tips

There’s a particular kind of guilt that comes with a bunch of bananas going spotty on the counter.

Nobody wants them, banana bread isn’t happening, and the compost feels like a waste when a flock of eager hens is standing right outside. So the question lands: can you just hand them over to the chickens?

Short version — yes, and they’ll probably sprint for them. Bananas aren’t toxic, and they bring a few genuinely useful nutrients to the run.

But “safe” and “good idea in any amount” are two different things, and most articles blur that line.

The part that actually matters isn’t whether chickens can eat bananas; it’s how the sugar and the near-zero protein fit into a laying hen’s day.

By the end of this, you’ll know exactly how much to give, how often, which ripeness is best, whether the peel is worth the bother, and the warning signs that you’ve gone overboard.

The short answer, in five lines

• Yes — bananas are a safe, non-toxic treat for chickens.
• Keep them to a treat: about 1 tablespoon per adult bird, once or twice a week.
• All treats combined should stay under roughly 10% of the daily diet.
• Ripe is ideal; never feed moldy or fermented fruit.
• The peel is edible but optional — most hens ignore it.

Yes, Chickens Can Eat Bananas — but Treat Them Like Candy, Not Dinner

Let’s settle the safety question first, because it’s the easy part. Bananas are not toxic to chickens. There’s no hidden compound to fear in the flesh, and most birds adore the soft, sweet texture.

Toss a few slices into the run and you’ll likely watch your calmest hen transform into a heat-seeking missile.

So why does every sensible keeper say “in moderation”? Here’s the reason that actually holds up — and it’s not just “sugar makes them fat.”

A banana is mostly water and carbohydrate, with only about a gram of protein in the whole thing.

What it does bring — a bit of potassium, vitamin B6, magnesium, and fiber — is genuinely useful in small doses, but it’s nothing a good feed isn’t already giving your birds.

A laying hen, meanwhile, runs on protein and calcium: the egg itself is essentially a protein package inside a calcium shell. Every mouthful of banana is a mouthful that isn’t balanced feed.

Fill a hen up on sweet treats and she has less appetite for the feed that supplies what she actually needs.

Over time, that protein-and-calcium shortfall shows up where you’ll notice it: fewer eggs, thinner shells, a slower bounce-back from molting.

That’s the real engine behind “moderation,” and it’s far more useful to understand than a vague warning about weight gain.

One myth worth retiring, though: you’ll read that a chicken would have to eat something like 20 bananas in one sitting to truly harm itself.

That’s basically true, and it’s good news — an accidental extra handful won’t poison anyone, so don’t panic over a one-time slip.

The damage bananas can do is the slow kind, built from a daily sugary habit, not a single generous afternoon.

How Much Banana, and How Often? Cutting Through the Conflicting Advice

This is where the internet falls apart. One article says treats should be 5% of the diet, the next says 10%, a third says “a tablespoon,” and a fourth says “one banana per four birds.” No wonder people give up and guess.

Here’s the through-line that ties them together: the 90/10 rule. Aim for about 90% balanced feed and 10% everything else — and because bananas sit at the sugary end of the treat shelf, park them at the low end of that 10%.

Translated into real life, it looks like this:

Your setup	About how much banana	How often
A hen or two	A few thin slices each (about 1 tablespoon)	1–2 times a week
A small flock (4–6 birds)	1 banana, shared between them	1–2 times a week
Chicks under 6 weeks	None yet — see the chick section below	—

The golden rules underneath the numbers are simple: never daily, and always rotate bananas with other treats so no single food dominates.

If your birds free-range, remember they’re already topping up on bugs and greens, so go even lighter on the fruit.

Want a gut-check that you’ve got the balance right?

Watch the egg basket. If your numbers dip or shells start feeling flimsy and it isn’t molting season or the dead of winter, take an honest look at how many treats have been sneaking into the run.

Ripe, Green, or Spotty-Brown? Which Banana Is Actually Best

Sources flatly contradict each other here. Some insist on ripe only and warn that green bananas cause upset; others claim “the greener, the better” because of the lower sugar.

They’re each half-right, and the full picture is more useful:

• Ripe and yellow is the sweet spot. It’s soft, easy to peck, and easy to digest — your everyday default.
• Green and unripe has less sugar (a genuine plus) but more resistant starch, which some birds find harder on the gut or simply pass straight through. If you use it, cut smaller pieces and don’t make it the norm.
• Overripe and brown is often the flock favorite, and soft-brown is perfectly fine — but it’s also the sweetest, so shrink the portion to match.

The only hard line is spoilage. Brown does not mean bad, but fuzzy mold, sliminess, or a boozy, sour smell does. Fermented or moldy fruit belongs in the trash or a hot compost pile, never in the run.

A good rule of thumb: if you’d still use it for banana bread, your hens can have it; if it’s gone past that, so have they.

What About the Peel? An Honest Answer

Banana peels aren’t toxic, and yes, they’re technically edible. But here’s the honest version most posts skip:

• Most chickens won’t really eat a raw peel.

They’ll nibble the soft inner side and leave the leathery rest behind. That’s completely normal, not a sign of a picky flock.

• There are two real catches.

Pesticide residue tends to concentrate on and in the peel, so if you feed it, choose organic and wash it well — or simply skip it.

And raw peel is tough, so it needs help: chop it small, boil it soft, or dry and crush it into a sprinkle for their feed.

You’ll also see the claim that the peel is more nutritious than the fruit. Treat that as folklore, not fact.

Peels do carry fiber and some minerals, but there’s no solid poultry evidence that they out-nourish the flesh, and the prep work rarely pays off in enthusiasm from the birds.

Bottom line: feeding the peel is a nice zero-waste gesture if your hens happen to take to it, but it’s entirely optional. Tossing peels straight into the compost is a perfectly good answer — and your flock won’t feel cheated.

How to Serve Bananas: The Fun Part, Done Right

Serving bananas takes almost no effort, but a few small choices keep it clean and fair:

1. Peel it. The flesh is what they’re after, and it spares you the pesticide question entirely.
2. Slice or mash it. Bite-sized rounds or a quick mash help everyone get a share and stop the bossiest hen from inhaling the whole thing.
3. Scatter it on a clean surface. A flat rock, a board, or bare ground beats dropping it into the bedding, where it turns into sticky mush.
4. Clear the leftovers. After 20–30 minutes, pick up whatever’s left. Sugary scraps are a magnet for flies, ants, and rats.

Once the basics are handled, the fun begins. Two crowd-pleasers worth trying:

• The hanging banana.

Split a whole banana lengthwise, tie it up with twine, and let the flock peck at a swinging piñata. It’s entertainment and a snack in one.

• Frozen slices.

On a hot afternoon, frozen banana coins are a fun novelty. Just be honest about what they do: this is enrichment, not air conditioning.

Shade, plenty of cool water, and watery treats like cucumber or watermelon do far more to beat real heat than a frozen banana ever will.

Anyone who has tossed a single banana into the run knows the scene that follows: a gentle flock turns, briefly, into a feathered rugby scrum, and the lowest hen in the pecking order ends up watching from the sidelines.

Spreading the pieces out across a few feet is the quiet fix — suddenly everyone has a piece, and nobody is getting flattened for it.

One easy thing to overlook: grit. Chickens have no teeth — they grind food in the gizzard using grit they’ve swallowed.

If your birds aren’t ranging on gritty ground, keep a dish of grit available, or soft treats just sit heavy in the crop.

As for the comical beak-wiping you’ll see afterward, that’s just a hen cleaning sticky residue off her beak, and it’s nothing to worry about.

How do you know it went well? The pieces vanish within 10–20 minutes, and the next day’s droppings look completely normal.

When Bananas Backfire — and What to Do

Signs you’ve gone too far

Most guides warn you vaguely to “watch for problems” without saying what to look for. Here’s the actual list:

• Loose or runny droppings the day after a treat.
• Turning their beaks up at regular feed — a classic sign of a treat habit.
• Weight you can feel building up around the breastbone.
• A soft, squishy, or sour-smelling crop first thing in the morning, which points to sour crop.
• Over several weeks, fewer eggs or noticeably thinner shells.

In plain terms, too much soft, sugary food can throw the crop off balance — letting yeast bloom or food pack down instead of moving through the way it should.

How to set things right

The fix is usually simple. Pause all treats for a few days and go back to plain balanced feed, fresh water, and grit, making sure no single bird is gorging. Most mild cases clear up on their own within a day or two.

Know when it’s more than a treat hangover, though. If a bird is hunched and listless, refusing to eat, passing watery droppings that won’t stop, or carrying a crop that’s still squishy and sour after a night’s empty stomach, call an avian vet rather than waiting it out.

Can Baby Chicks Have Bananas?

Chicks are a different story, and the advice online is all over the map — some say never, others say 6 weeks, others 8.

Here’s the reasoning that cuts through it. A chick’s entire job in the early weeks is growing, and growth runs on high-protein starter feed, not sugar. Their tiny digestive systems are also easily thrown off.

So the safe, simple rule is to hold off on bananas and other sweet treats for the first several weeks.

If you want to share once they’re a bit older — somewhere around 6 to 8 weeks — offer a pea-sized dab of mashed ripe banana, rarely, and only once they have chick grit so they can actually break it down.

Until then, starter feed and clean water are all they need. When in doubt, wait. There’s genuinely no rush.

Banana Questions Chicken Keepers Actually Ask

Can chickens eat banana chips or dried banana?

Skip them. Drying concentrates the sugar, and most store-bought chips pile on added sugar, oil, or preservatives that your flock doesn’t need. Fresh banana — or plain frozen — is the better choice every time.

Will feeding bananas make my eggs taste like banana?

No. Unlike strong-flavored foods such as onion, garlic, or fish, bananas don’t carry through into the eggs. You can hand out the treat without worrying about your morning omelet.

Do bananas boost egg laying?

Not directly. Steady laying comes from complete feed, enough protein and calcium, good light, and low stress — not from any single fruit. If anything, leaning on bananas too hard can lower production rather than raise it.

My chickens won’t touch bananas — is something wrong?

Not at all. Taste is individual, and plenty of hens snub bananas while their coop-mates lose their minds over them. If yours aren’t fans, just offer something else — berries, melon, or chopped cucumber are usually easy wins.

If bananas are fine, which fruits and scraps aren’t?

Keep a few things out of the run entirely: avocado pits and skins (they contain persin), raw or dried beans (toxic lectins), anything moldy, chocolate and coffee (theobromine and caffeine), large amounts of onion, and the green parts of potatoes and unripe tomatoes (solanine).

When you’re unsure about a new food, look it up before tossing it in.

Related posts:

• Can Chickens Eat Sunflower Seeds? Everything You Need to Know
• Can Chickens Eat Potatoes? The Safe and Toxic Varieties Explained
• Can Chickens Eat Bird Seed? Unraveling Myths and Facts

The Bottom Line

Bananas are one of the easiest treats you can offer a flock — as long as you keep them in their lane. The quick recap:

• Bananas are a safe, sugary treat, not a meal.
• About 1 tablespoon per bird, once or twice a week, never daily.
• Ripe is best; moldy or fermented is never.
• The peel is edible but optional — the flesh is what they love.
• Watch the droppings, the breastbone, and the egg basket for signs you’ve overdone it.

Here’s the part that makes this worth learning: the same 10% thinking works for every treat you’ll ever hand out, so you’ve really just picked up the rule for the whole treat shelf, not only bananas.

Next time a spotty bunch is sitting there that nobody will eat, peel one, scatter a few slices across a clean board, and let the girls show you exactly how they feel about it.

Save this guide for the next time you’re eyeing the fruit bowl and wondering what’s fair game.

source https://harvestsavvy.com/can-chickens-eat-bananas/

40 Best Cucumbers for Pickling and How to Keep Them Crisp

The best cucumbers for pickling are pickling varieties: short, bumpy, unwaxed cucumbers with a small seed cavity, often sold as Kirbys.

If you grow your own, Boston Pickling and National Pickling have proved themselves for generations, Wautoma and Calypso stand up to mildew and mosaic virus, and Pick a Bushel fits in a large pot.

If you buy them, freshness matters as much as type, and a pickler picked this morning will beat a better variety that’s been sitting for a week.

Start with the right cucumber and handle it quickly, and your pickles will keep their crunch, from a single fridge jar to a full canner load for winter.

Quick picks

• At the store or market: pickling cucumbers (often labeled Kirby) 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 cm) long, hard at both ends, with dull rather than waxy skin.
• One variety to grow: Boston Pickling if you want an heirloom, Calypso if you want a disease-resistant hybrid.
• If disease or beetles end your season: Wautoma, or County Fair for bacterial wilt.
• Pots and small beds: Pick a Bushel or Picklebush.
• Persian cucumbers: great for fridge pickles you’ll eat within a few weeks, but use pickling types for canning and fermenting.
• Before packing: cut 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) off the blossom end, and pickle within a day of harvest.

What Makes a Cucumber Good for Pickling

Any cucumber can be pickled, but only some stay crunchy in brine, and the reasons are built into the fruit:

• A small seed cavity.

The flesh around the seeds is the wettest, softest part of a cucumber and the first to break down in a jar.

Linda Ziedrich, author of The Joy of Pickling, rates the size of the seed cavity as the most important trait of all, because that center softens even when the seeds are barely formed.

• Skin that lets brine in but holds its shape.

You’ll read that picklers have thick skins and also thin ones, and both are relative.

Their skin is thinner than a standard slicer’s, which is bred to survive shipping and often waxed, but tougher than an English or Persian cucumber’s, so a spear stays intact for months. Wax rules a cucumber out, since brine can’t get through it.

• Firm, fairly dry flesh.

Watery flesh dilutes the brine and goes limp. A good pickler feels hard from end to end.

• A short, blocky shape.

Picklers are harvested young, when they’re stubby and nearly even in width, so they pack tightly and pickle evenly to the center.

• Bumps and spines.

This is how you spot a pickler. American types have a few large warts with white or black spines, European types a coat of fine prickles, and both rub off with a towel.

• Little bitterness.

A bitter cucumber makes a bitter pickle, so some modern varieties, County Fair among them, are bred to be bitter-free.

• Raw crunch is a poor predictor.

When food writer Veronica Tegen grew several varieties in one bed and pickled each the same way, Boston Pickling, with its small, tight center, was still crisp after months in the fridge.

Muncher, a snacking cucumber with a larger, wetter seed cavity, came out soft enough to sag in the jar.

The Best Pickling Cucumber Varieties to Grow

Brine and spices supply most of a pickle’s flavor, so the right variety for you depends mostly on what tends to go wrong in your garden: disease, beetles, a short summer or too little space.

First, the terms you’ll meet on seed packets:

• Open-pollinated or heirloom:

Seed you save grows into the same variety, provided no other cucumber pollinated the flowers. Heirlooms are older open-pollinated varieties.

• Hybrid or F1:

A deliberate cross, usually made for disease resistance and yield. Saved seed won’t come true, so you buy new seed each year.

• Gynoecious or PF (predominantly female):

Almost every flower is female, so yields come early and heavy, but the plants still need pollen. Packets include some seed of a pollinator variety, often dyed a different color, so plant every seed in the packet.

• Parthenocarpic:

Sets fruit with no pollination at all, so it can grow in a greenhouse or under row cover all season.

Kept away from other cucumbers, the fruit is nearly seedless, which is ideal for pickles. If bees do pollinate it, the fruit can turn seedy and misshapen.

• Disease codes:

Letters such as ALS (angular leaf spot), CMV (cucumber mosaic virus), DM (downy mildew) and PM (powdery mildew) list what a variety resists. Resistance cuts losses but doesn’t make a plant immune.

Whatever you choose, picklers need the same basics. Sow them once the soil has warmed to about 70°F (21°C), give vining types a trellis and water deeply and evenly, since drought stress leads to bitter, misshapen fruit.

Plant enough vines to give you a jar’s worth at each picking.

If you just want a recommendation for your situation, start here:

Your situation	Varieties to try	Why they fit
First pickling garden	Boston Pickling, National Pickling	Proven heirlooms with small seeds; you can save the seed
Mildew or mosaic virus kills your vines	Wautoma, Calypso	Each resists six common cucumber diseases
Cucumber beetles and bacterial wilt	County Fair	Wilt-resistant, and needs no bees, so it can stay under row cover
Pots, balconies and small beds	Pick a Bushel, Picklebush	Compact plants spreading about 2 feet (60 cm)
Short or cool summers	Northern Pickling, Bushy	First fruit in under 50 days
Greenhouse, tunnel or row cover	Little Leaf H-19, Excelsior	Set fruit without pollination
Cornichons and tiny whole gherkins	Parisian Pickling, Vorgebirgstrauben	Prickly European types bred to be picked small

Here are 20 Best Mini Cucumbers to Grow (Varieties + Care Guide)

Heirloom and Open-Pollinated Picklers

Grow these if you’d like to save your own seed. Several have been filling pickle jars for a century or more.

• Boston Pickling:

Credit: underwoodgardens

Introduced in 1880 and still a favorite with home gardeners. Its blunt, black-spined fruits have small seeds, and the vines keep bearing as long as you keep picking, starting at about 55 days.

• National Pickling:

Credit: superseeds

Bred at the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station for the pickle-packing industry in the 1920s. The straight, medium-green fruits are thick enough for proper spears and ready in about 55 days.

• Chicago Pickling:

Credit: starkbros

An American heirloom from 1888, black-spined and resistant to scab and cucumber mosaic virus. Pick it at 2 inches (5 cm) for gherkins or let it reach about 4 inches (10 cm) for chips.

• Wisconsin SMR 58:

Credit: William Dam Seeds

A descendant of the University of Wisconsin’s SMR line, whose initials stand for scab and mosaic resistant. It yields heavily, and its longer, slightly tapered fruits grow straightest on a trellis.

• Wautoma:

Credit: territorialseed

Released in 1985 by the USDA and the University of Wisconsin, and one of the strongest open-pollinated choices where disease is the problem.

It resists six diseases, including both mildews, scab and mosaic virus, and its slender, white-spined fruits are ready in about 60 days.

• Northern Pickling:

Credit: runabergsfroer

From the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station and suited to New England and Canada. Its compact vines set fruit at almost every leaf joint, with the first pickles ready in about 48 days.

• Sumter:

Credit: SylvanRoots on etsy

Released in 1973 by Clemson University’s experiment station in South Carolina. Its white-spined fruits have a small seed cavity, and it resists seven diseases, including both mildews, anthracnose and watermelon mosaic virus.

It’s also one parent of the Carolina hybrid below.

• Bush Pickle:

Credit: fruitionseeds

An open-pollinated bush type, not the same as Picklebush below. It sets its crop over a shorter window than vining picklers, which suits you if you’d rather can one or two big batches than a jar at a time.

• Homemade Pickles:

Credit: Superseeds

An open-pollinated variety on 4- to 5-foot (1.2 to 1.5 m) vines.

It stays crisp anywhere from 1½ to 6 inches (4 to 15 cm) long, so a few missed days of picking don’t cost you the harvest, and it resists angular leaf spot, powdery mildew and cucumber mosaic virus.

• Double Yield:

Credit: the diggers club

An early variety from 1924 that often sets two cucumbers at a leaf joint, with picking starting around 50 days.

• Bushy:

Credit: superseeds

A cold-tolerant Russian variety on short 3- to 5-foot (0.9 to 1.5 m) vines that starts bearing in under 50 days.

• Little Leaf H-19:

Credit: johnnyseeds

Released by the University of Arkansas in 1991. It’s open-pollinated yet can set fruit without bees, and its small leaves and compact, branching vines make the 3- to 4-inch (7.5 to 10 cm) fruits easy to find.

Hybrids Bred for Disease Resistance and Big Harvests

• Calypso:

Credit: superseeds

Bred at North Carolina State University and long a mainstay of commercial pickle fields. It resists six common cucumber diseases, and its mostly female flowers give it heavy yields. Pick at about 3 inches (7.5 cm).

• County Fair:

Credit: jungseed

Like Wautoma, bred by the USDA and the University of Wisconsin. University of Maryland Extension calls it the only cucumber on the market that resists bacterial wilt, a disease spread by cucumber beetles that kills whole vines.

Because it’s parthenocarpic, it can stay under row cover all season, out of the beetles’ reach, and it’s nearly seedless when grown apart from other cucumbers. Pick at 3 to 4 inches. It’s also sold as County Fair 83 or County Fair Improved.

• Carolina:

Credit: neseed

A 1973 Clemson hybrid closely related to Calypso, with white-spined fruits, a small seed cavity and resistance to seven diseases.

• Regal:

Credit: holmesseed

A semi-dwarf North Carolina State hybrid whose fruits run longer than Calypso’s, which makes it a good pick for chips and spears.

• Sassy and Alibi:

Sassy Cucumbers | Credit: harrisseeds

Two hybrids bred mostly for female flowers and small seed cavities. Sassy bears dark green fruits on long vines.

Alibi has shorter vines and good brining quality; pick it at 2 to 4 inches, because its tapered fruits bloat if left longer.

• Burpee Pickler and Fancipak:

Burpee Pickler cucumbers | Credit: burpee

Two dependable older hybrids. Burpee Pickler, from 1957, bears blocky, black-spined fruits and tolerates cucumber mosaic virus. Fancipak, from 1985, was bred for warm regions and produces few crooked or stubby fruits.

• Endeavor:

Credit: reneesgarden

A gynoecious hybrid from USDA and North Carolina State breeders with the same six-disease resistance as Calypso. Some seed companies sell it simply as a Kirby.

• Pick a Bushel:

Credit: jungseed

A hybrid that won a regional All-America Selections award in 2014. Its semi-bush plants spread only about 2 feet yet bear 3- to 5-inch fruits heavily, which makes it a good choice for a large container.

• Picklebush:

Credit: RachelsRecycling on etsy

A Burpee variety with vines just 20 to 24 inches (50 to 60 cm) long, small enough for a balcony pot, bearing fruits about 4 inches long in roughly 52 days.

• Fresh Pickles and Supremo:

SUPREMO cucumbers | Credit: seedway

Two compact Burpee hybrids. Fresh Pickles grows only 12 to 15 inches (30 to 38 cm) tall and resists downy mildew, a plus in humid summers. Supremo bears 3- to 4-inch fruits with small seed cavities on vines 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 cm) long.

• Excelsior:

Credit: johnnyseeds

A parthenocarpic hybrid bred for greenhouses and tunnels, with blocky 4- to 5-inch (10 to 13 cm) fruits and strong scab resistance. Since it needs no bees, it’s made for growing under cover.

• Harmonie and Cool Breeze:

Cool Breeze Cucumbers | Credit: ttseeds

Two more parthenocarpic hybrids that set fruit without bees. Harmonie is very early, with firm, straight fruits and resistance to powdery mildew and scab. Cool Breeze has fine spines and thin skin and starts bearing in about 45 days.

Gherkins and Cornichons

For tiny whole pickles, European pickling types are bred to be picked at finger length, and their fine prickles rub off easily. In the UK and much of Europe, pickling cucumbers of every size are sold simply as gherkins.

• Parisian Pickling (also sold as Improved Bourbonne):

Credit: westonseeds

A French heirloom introduced to American gardeners in 1892. Pick it at about 2 inches for classic cornichons, or let it grow for ordinary pickles. Fin de Meaux, another French cornichon variety, is grown the same way.

Don’t confuse either with Parisian Gherkin, a semi-vining hybrid that won an All-America Selections award in 2015 and grows well in a staked container.

• Vorgebirgstrauben:

Credit: ctcseeds

A German heirloom, listed as Rhinish Pickle by some US seed companies. It’s thicker than the French types, so pick it at 3 to 4 inches before the seeds fill out.

• Hokus:

Credit: cultivers

An heirloom gherkin with very uniform fruits and very few seeds. Pick at 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) to pickle whole.

• Vert de Massy:

Credit: promessedefleurs

A black-spined French cornichon type with scab tolerance, ready in about 53 days.

Colorful and Unusual Picklers

• Boothby’s Blond: a Maine family heirloom with creamy yellow skin and black spines. Pick it at about 4 inches for pickles, and give it a trellis and good airflow, since it’s prone to powdery mildew.
• Salt and Pepper: a white-skinned pickler with black spines and powdery mildew resistance. Picked small, it makes a striking jar.
• Miniature White: an open-pollinated variety on vines up to 3 feet (90 cm), with small, creamy white fruits that don’t need peeling, ready in 50 to 55 days.
• Lemon: a round, yellow heirloom from the 1890s. It’s really a salad cucumber, so pick it young, before the seeds toughen, and slice it rather than pickling it whole.
• Mexican sour gherkin (cucamelon): not a true cucumber but a grape-sized relative with a lemony bite. It pickles whole and climbs a trellis readily.
• West Indian gherkin: a spiny, oval cousin of the cucumber from a separate species, and another good candidate for whole pickles.

When to Pick Cucumbers for Pickling

Pickling cucumbers grow quickly, and the size you pick at decides what you can make. Once the vines start bearing, check them every day:

• Cornichons and tiny gherkins: 1½ to 2 inches (4 to 5 cm), roughly thumb length.
• Whole dills: around 4 inches, the size tested dill recipes are written for.
• Spears: 4 to 5 inches, trimmed to fit your jar with the headspace your recipe calls for.
• Chips and slices: judge by width rather than length. Aim for 1¼ to 1¾ inches (3 to 4.5 cm) across; Penn State Extension advises no more than 2 inches across for canned pickles.
• Relish and bread-and-butter pickles: the odd shapes and larger cucumbers, peeled and seeded if the seeds have hardened.
• Yellow or swollen: past pickling. Compost it, or save the seeds if you grow only one open-pollinated variety.

Pick in the cool of the morning, when the fruits are crispest, and cut them off with scissors or pruners rather than twisting, which can damage the vine. Leave about ¼ inch (6 mm) of stem on cucumbers you’ll pickle whole.

Keep picking even when you don’t need the fruit yet, because vines carrying oversized cucumbers slow down.

Buying Cucumbers for Pickling

Without a garden, look for cucumbers labeled pickling or Kirby. Kirby is a market name rather than a variety.

It’s left over from Kirby’s Stays Green, a pickler sold by Philadelphia seedsman Norval Kirby in the 1920s, and now covers any short, bumpy pickling cucumber.

Picklers are a summer crop, and farmers markets are the most dependable place to find them. Ask when they were picked; that morning or the day before is what you want.

Many growers will set a bag aside if you order a few days ahead, and a cooler in the car keeps them crisp on the way home.

In the bin, look for cucumbers that are:

• 3 to 5 inches long and close to the same size, so every jar pickles evenly.
• Hard at both ends, with no soft spots or wrinkled skin.
• Dull rather than glossy. A shine usually means wax.
• Green to pale green all over. Yellow patches mean overripe fruit with tough seeds.

Other cucumbers in the produce aisle can work too, as long as you match them to the pickle:

Cucumber	Good for	Not ideal for
Pickling (Kirby)	Every style: fridge, canned or fermented	Nothing, if it’s fresh and unwaxed
Persian (mini)	Fridge and quick pickles eaten within a few weeks	Fermenting and long storage; softens over time
Japanese (kyuri)	Quick rice-vinegar, soy or miso pickles	Canning and fermenting
English (hothouse)	Thin slices for quick pickles eaten that week	Spears, canning and fermenting; too watery
Standard slicer	Relish, peeled and seeded	Whole pickles and spears; often waxed, with large seeds

Whatever you buy, treat it as perishable, because cucumbers lose moisture fast at room temperature.

If you can’t pickle them the same day, refrigerate them loosely bagged for no more than a day or two. Cucumbers are chilling-sensitive, and several days in a cold fridge leaves them pitted and soft.

How to Keep Pickles Crisp, From Vine to Jar

A great pickling cucumber can still make a soft pickle. Variety sets the limit, and how quickly and carefully you handle the cucumbers decides how close you get to it.

You’ll need: a sharp knife, a large bowl of ice water and, if you like, calcium chloride (sold as Pickle Crisp).

1. Pickle within 24 hours of harvest, sooner if possible. The National Center for Home Food Preservation links long delays between picking and brining to hollow and shriveled pickles.
2. Wash the cucumbers gently and set aside any that float. They’re usually hollow inside and better suited to relish.
3. Slice 1/16 inch off the blossom end, the end opposite the stem, marked by a small rough dot where the flower fell off. That end carries enzymes that soften pickles, and once it’s gone you don’t need the old trick of adding grape leaves to the jar.
4. Taste a sliver from the stem end of each cucumber. Bitterness usually concentrates there, and pickling won’t remove it, so set bitter ones aside.
5. Soak the cucumbers in ice water, or layer them with crushed ice, for 4 to 5 hours before packing.
6. For extra insurance, add calcium chloride to each jar before sealing. The usual dose is a rounded ⅛ teaspoon per pint (473 ml) jar and a rounded ¼ teaspoon per quart (946 ml) jar, but follow the label on the brand you buy.

Skip alum. It does nothing for quick pickles and isn’t needed in fermented ones.

Pickling lime does firm cucumbers, but use it only in a recipe written for it and rinse exactly as directed, because lime left behind lowers the acidity and can make canned pickles unsafe.

Your method matters too. Refrigerator pickles stay crunchiest because they’re never heated, while a boiling-water bath softens them a little.

Some tested recipes offer low-temperature pasteurization instead: the jars sit in water held at 180 to 185°F (82 to 85°C) for 30 minutes, checked with a thermometer, and the pickles keep more crunch. Use it only in recipes that list it.

For canned pickles, follow a tested recipe exactly and use vinegar of 5% acidity, because changing the proportions of vinegar, water and cucumbers can make pickles unsafe.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are burpless cucumbers good for pickling?

Not for fermented pickles. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says burpless types produce a softening enzyme at their normal mature size, though small ones with undeveloped seeds can work in quick, fresh-pack pickles.

The label is used loosely, and some excellent picklers, Wautoma among them, are sold as burpless, so judge a variety by what it was bred for rather than by that one word.

How many cucumbers do I need for pickles?

Plan on about 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of cucumbers per quart jar, or about 9 pounds (4 kg) for a canner load of 9 pints.

If you’re growing your own, University of California master gardeners estimate roughly 27 pounds (12 kg) from a 15-foot (4.6 m) row of pickling cucumbers over a season, enough for around 13 quarts if you pickle as they ripen.

Will growing different cucumber varieties together ruin my pickles?

No. Cross-pollination changes only the seeds inside this year’s fruit, so you’d notice it only if you saved and planted those seeds, and cucumbers don’t cross with squash or melons at all.

The one exception is parthenocarpic varieties such as County Fair, which stay seedless only if you grow them apart from other cucumbers or under cover.

Where to Start

Don’t plan a canning day around a cucumber you haven’t tried. Grow or buy one dependable pickler, turn the first fresh batch into a single jar of refrigerator pickles, and taste it after a week.

If it’s still crisp, you’ve found your cucumber. If it isn’t, check the handling steps before blaming the variety, then try another pick from the table above.

source https://harvestsavvy.com/best-cucumbers-for-pickling/

Best Apples for Apple Pie: What to Use and What to Skip

The best apples for apple pie stay firm, lean a little tart and still taste like apple after an hour in the oven.

At an ordinary grocery store, that means Braeburn, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Jonagold or a fresh Golden Delicious, and a pie made with two of them usually beats a pie made with one. Red Delicious and Gala are the ones to leave on the shelf.

Choose well and you get a pie that slices cleanly and tastes of fruit rather than just sugar and cinnamon, even if all you have is a supermarket.

Quick picks

• Best single apple: Braeburn, or Granny Smith if you like a tart pie.
• Easiest pairing: half Granny Smith, half Honeycrisp or Golden Delicious.
• For deeper apple flavor: swap one or two McIntosh or Cortland in for some of the firm apples.
• Skip: Red Delicious and Gala. Use McIntosh only as a small share of a mix.
• How many: 2½ to 3 pounds (1.1 to 1.4 kg), or roughly 7 to 9 medium apples, for a standard 9-inch (23 cm) pie; about 4 pounds (1.8 kg) for deep-dish.

What Makes a Good Pie Apple

A pie apple has a harder job than a snacking apple. It has to bake for an hour or more, soften all the way through and still come out as a slice rather than a puddle. Four traits decide whether it manages:

• Apple flesh is held together by pectin, the same gelling substance that sets jam. Dense apples with little air between their cells, like Braeburn, keep their shape even when fully tender. Airy, loose-fleshed apples such as McIntosh slump into sauce.
• Tartness balances the sugar in the filling, and acid also slows the breakdown of pectin as the apple cooks, so tart apples tend to stay firmer. That’s why sweet, low-acid apples so often bake up both sugary and soft.
• Flavor that survives heat. Some apples taste great raw and go flat once cooked. Others, Golden Delicious in particular, taste better baked than fresh.
• Moderate juice. Every apple weeps as it bakes. Very juicy varieties flood the filling and soak the bottom crust unless you thicken or drain them.

Raw crunch isn’t a reliable guide. Some modern snacking apples are bred for a crisp, fracturing bite that turns grainy in the oven, and Gala is the best-known example.

You may also read that apples which brown slowly after cutting are the tart, firm ones. Acid does slow browning, but so does a naturally low level of the browning enzyme, which is why a mild apple like Opal stays white for hours. Go by variety and firmness instead.

 Discover 35+ Apple Varieties With Selection Tips & Their Perfect Uses

The Best Grocery-Store Apples for Pie

These are the varieties you can find in most US supermarkets for at least part of the year, judged on how they bake rather than how they eat raw.

Apple	Baked texture	Flavor in pie	Best use
Braeburn	Firm but tender; releases little juice	Sweet-tart and spicy, almost pear-like	Stands alone or anchors a mix
Granny Smith	Firm; reliably keeps its shape	Bright and tart, not very apple-y	The tart half of a pair
Golden Delicious	Soft but sliced, if fresh	Rich and buttery; deepens as it bakes	Flavor apple; alone for a softer pie
Honeycrisp	Firm with some bite	Sweet with mild tartness	The sweet half of a pair
Pink Lady (Cripps Pink)	Very firm, fairly dry	Sweet-tart and bright	Mixes; neat slices
Jonagold	Softens but holds	Honeyed, gently tart	Mixes, especially in early fall
Cosmic Crisp	Firm and juicy	Sweet with a little tartness	The sweet half of a pair
Jazz	Dense and firm; holds its slices	Tangy-sweet	The sweet half of a pair

Braeburn is the closest thing to a do-everything pie apple. It softens fully, keeps its shape and gives off little liquid, so the filling stays saucy rather than soupy.

Braeburn Apple | Credit: wikipedia

It’s harvested late and stores well, which makes it a dependable choice for holiday baking.

Granny Smith earned its reputation honestly. It’s sold year-round, its acidity stands up to plenty of sugar and spice, and in most kitchens it holds its shape.

Granny Smith apple | Credit: Gardening Know How

Its weakness is flavor: on its own it tastes more tart than apple-y, and long-stored supermarket Grannies sometimes bake up softer and grainier than their reputation suggests.

Use it as the tart half of a pair rather than the whole pie, unless you love a sharp filling.

Golden Delicious splits opinion more than any other apple, and freshness is usually the reason.

Golden Delicious | Credit: Gardening Know How

A firm, recently harvested Golden bakes into the richest-tasting filling of any common apple, soft but still in slices. One that has spent months in storage turns mealy and collapses.

Buy it in the fall, press it before it goes in your bag, and pair it with something firmer if you’re unsure.

Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp hold up well and bring sweetness, but they cost more than most apples and lean sweet, so they shine next to a tart one.

Honeycrisp Apple | Credit: wikipedia

Pink Lady is about as firm as pie apples get. On its own it can bake up slightly dry and chewy, so slice it on the thin side or mix it with a juicier apple.

Pink Lady apple | Credit: Gardening Know How

Three more supermarket apples bake well, though all of them lean sweet and need a tart partner or a little lemon juice:

• Pacific Rose: firm and sweet with only mild acidity, and it keeps its shape in the oven.
• Opal: dense and pear-like, with flesh that stays intact under a crust. It’s too sweet to make up more than about half the filling.
• Ambrosia: honey-sweet with almost no acid, but its texture survives baking.

Apples to Use Sparingly or Skip

Good in Small Amounts

McIntosh has the most classic apple-pie flavor of all, tart and cider-like, but it melts into sauce in the oven.

McIntosh Apple | Credit: wikipedia

In a pie of firmer apples, a quarter McIntosh fills the gaps with smooth, flavorful sauce. Use more and the filling shrinks away from the top crust.

Cortland behaves much the same but holds together slightly better, and Macoun, a McIntosh relative sold for a few weeks each fall in the Northeast, can fill the same role.

Macoun apple | Credit: applerankings

Fuji is sweet, juicy and mild. Bakers disagree about its texture, which ranges from pleasantly medium-firm to watery from one batch to the next, so treat it as a sweet partner for Granny Smith and add a little extra thickener.

Fuji apple | Credit: wikipedia

Jonathan, an older tart variety common in the Midwest, softens a lot but tastes excellent in a mix.

Jonathan apple | Credit: Frank C. Müller on wikipedia

Better Left on the Shelf

Red Delicious is bland and mealy raw and no better baked, and its thick skin can taste bitter

Red Delicious Apples | Credit: specialtyproduce

Gala is pleasant fresh, but in side-by-side baking tests it repeatedly turns grainy and loses its flavor, which is hard to forgive in a pie. Neither will ruin a filling as a small share of a mix, but there’s no reason to buy them for one.

Gala apple | Credit: wikipedia

A few others get conflicting reviews. Envy, Mutsu (also sold as Crispin), Rome and Empire are praised by some bakers and called grainy, bland or mushy by others.

If you have them, run the quick test described below before committing a whole pie.

One Variety or a Mix?

You’ll often see a mix recommended as the secret to great pie, but a single variety has a real advantage: every slice cooks at the same rate, so the texture is even and predictable from pie to pie.

Pairing a firm apple with a soft one gives you some slices that hold and some that collapse. Whether that’s a flaw or the whole point depends on what you like.

• You want neat, even slices: use one firm, balanced apple such as Braeburn, or two firm apples with similar texture, like Granny Smith and Pink Lady.
• You want more flavor than one apple gives: pair a tart apple with a sweet one of similar firmness. Granny Smith with Honeycrisp, Jonagold or Golden Delicious is the easiest grocery-store pair.
• You like a saucy, old-fashioned filling: add a soft, flavorful apple like McIntosh or Cortland as up to a quarter of the total, so it melts around the firmer slices.

For a three-apple pie, a good starting ratio is two parts firm-tart, two parts firm-sweet and one part soft. Taste the result and adjust the next pie from there.

When you combine textures, cut the softer apples a little thicker than the firm ones so they finish at the same time.

Regional and Heirloom Apples Worth Seeking Out

If you live near orchards, some of the best pie apples may never reach a supermarket. Look for these in season:

• Northern Spy: firm, tart and one of the few heirlooms that can carry a pie alone. It’s grown mostly in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes and is picked in late fall.
• Winesap and Stayman: tangy, wine-like late apples that hold their shape and keep well.
• Newtown Pippin (also sold as Albemarle Pippin): a tart, firm colonial-era apple that holds its shape and gains flavor after a few weeks in storage.
• Baldwin: an old New England keeper with firm flesh and a mild sweet-tart flavor.
• Arkansas Black: a very hard, dark red late apple from the South. It’s at its best after several weeks of storage and bakes up firm with deep flavor.
• GoldRush: a modern, late-ripening apple that’s tart, very firm and keeps for months, which makes it a good choice for winter pies.
• Esopus Spitzenburg, Rhode Island Greening and Calville Blanc: old varieties prized for intense flavor and slices that stay intact.
• Golden Russet and Roxbury Russet: dense, sweet-tart and fairly dry, so they stay firm and won’t flood the crust.
• Haralson: a tart, firm Minnesota apple sold across the Upper Midwest.
• Gravenstein: fragrant and tart but soft. It ripens in late summer, is best known from Sonoma County, California, and should go into pie before it’s fully ripe.
• Early-season options: if you bake in August or early September, Golden Supreme and Ginger Gold soften more than late apples but mostly hold their shape, and the short-season Pink Pearl adds tartness and pink flesh. Pair any of them with a firmer apple such as Granny Smith.

Be wary of signs that say “old-fashioned pie apple.” Pie tastes have changed, and some heirlooms earned that label by cooking down completely. Wolf River is a well-known example that turns to applesauce inside a crust.

Ask the grower one question: does it hold its shape when baked? Most will happily tell you, and many will let you taste one.

Outside the US, the same rules apply to whatever your market sells.

• In the UK and Ireland, Bramley is the standard cooking apple; it’s very tart and cooks to a soft, fluffy pulp, so mix it with a firm eating apple such as Braeburn or Cox if you want visible slices.
• In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, Belle de Boskoop fills a similar role and is firmer.
• In Australia and New Zealand, Granny Smith, Braeburn and Pink Lady are all grown locally, and the new crop arrives from late summer into autumn, roughly February to May.

Freshness Matters as Much as Variety

The same variety can bake beautifully in October and fall apart in June. Supermarket apples are held in cold, low-oxygen storage for many months, sometimes close to a year.

They look fine on the shelf, but their flesh softens quickly once they leave storage, and that weakened structure shows up in the oven as mush or mealiness.

In the Northern Hemisphere, apples are harvested from late summer through November, and that’s when pie apples are at their firmest.

Summer apples are generally softer than late-harvest keepers like Braeburn, Northern Spy and Granny Smith.

When you shop:

• Press the apple firmly with your thumb. A good pie apple doesn’t dent.
• Choose fruit that feels heavy for its size, with taut skin and no soft or bruised spots.
• If you’re picking your own, take apples that are just ripe rather than fully soft; they bake firmer.

At home, keep apples in the refrigerator in a loosely closed or perforated bag rather than in a fruit bowl, because they soften far faster at room temperature.

If you’re baking in spring or summer, buy apples from the refrigerated case if you can, keep them cold and lean on firm varieties like Granny Smith and Pink Lady.

Test Unfamiliar Apples Before You Bake

If you’ve come home with a bag of apples that has no name, or you want to know how your local varieties behave, a muffin-tin test gives you an answer in under an hour.

You’ll need: one apple of each variety, a muffin tin, sugar, salt and foil.

1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and lightly grease one muffin cup per variety.
2. Peel, core and slice each apple ¼ inch (6 mm) thick, keeping the varieties separate.
3. Toss each pile with about 1 teaspoon of sugar and a tiny pinch of salt, then pack the slices into their own cup. Write down which variety went where.
4. Cover the tin with foil and poke a few holes in it, so the apples steam the way they would under a top crust.
5. Bake until a knife slides easily into the firmest cup, usually 25 to 40 minutes.
6. Let everything cool completely, then taste. Cooled apples tell you far more than hot ones.

You’re looking for slices that are tender all the way through but still distinct, a smooth rather than grainy texture, and a clear apple flavor. A variety that collapses but tastes wonderful is still useful as the soft part of a mix.

Adjusting Your Filling to the Apples You Bought

Most recipes are written with one kind of apple in mind, usually Granny Smith. If you use something else, a few small changes keep the filling balanced.

• Sweetness:

Taste a slice before adding sugar. With sweet apples like Honeycrisp, Fuji or Golden Delicious, cut the sugar by about a quarter and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. For an all-Granny Smith filling, use the full amount.

• Juice

Juicy apples need more thickener. Alternatively, let the slices sit with the sugar for 30 to 60 minutes, drain off the liquid, boil it down to a syrup and stir it back in. Braeburn and Pink Lady give off so little that you can often use less thickener.

• Slice thickness

About ¼ inch (6 mm) suits most apples. Go up to ½ inch (13 mm) for soft varieties so they don’t dissolve, and stay at ¼ inch for very firm ones so they cook through.

• Softer apples

A gentle warm-up before baking helps them keep their shape. Warming the slices to roughly 140 to 160°F (60 to 70°C), well below a simmer, for about 10 minutes switches on an enzyme in the apple that makes its pectin more heat-stable.

The simple way is to pour just-boiled water over the slices, cover for 10 minutes, then drain them well and let them cool before filling the pie.

• Doneness:

Bake until thick juices bubble through the vents and a knife meets no crunch.

The center of the filling should reach about 195 to 200°F (90 to 93°C); firm apples often need 60 to 75 minutes or more to get there. Then let the pie cool for at least 2 to 3 hours so the filling sets.

Learn How to Dehydrate Apples at Home: Easy Steps for Perfect Results

If a pie still disappoints, the apples usually explain why:

Problem	Likely cause	Fix next time
Mushy, applesauce-like filling	Soft variety, long-stored apples or thin slices	Firmer apples bought in season, thicker slices or a gentle warm-up
Grainy or mealy texture	Gala, Red Delicious or old stock	Change varieties; baking can’t fix it
Crunchy apples under a finished crust	Very firm apples or a short bake	Thinner slices, a foil shield on the edges and a longer bake
Soupy filling, soggy bottom	Juicy apples, too little thickener or cutting it warm	Drain and reduce the juices, add thickener, cool fully
Big gap under the top crust	Raw apples shrinking, especially soft ones	Pack and mound the slices, or warm them first
Sweet but flat flavor	Only low-acid apples	Add a tart apple or lemon juice

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to peel apples for apple pie?

Not always, but most pies are better peeled. Thick skins like those of Red Delicious and Granny Smith stay tough and curl into chewy strips.

Thin-skinned apples such as Golden Delicious and Pink Lady can go in unpeeled for a rustic pie, and the skin adds a little color.

Are the best apples for apple crisp the same as for pie?

Mostly, but a crisp is more forgiving. With no bottom crust to soak, it can take juicier, softer apples like Fuji or McIntosh, and many people prefer a jammier filling under a crumble.

Firm pie apples work in a crisp too, especially tart ones under a sweet topping.

Can I use apples that have gone a little soft?

Only in small amounts. Mix one or two into a pie of firm apples, where they’ll melt into the sauce, or turn them into applesauce, apple butter or cake. A whole pie of soft apples will collapse and leave a gap under the crust.

Where to Start

If you’re standing in the produce aisle without a plan, buy two kinds of firm apples, one tart and one sweet. Granny Smith with Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious or Braeburn will make a very good pie almost anywhere in the US.

Press each apple before it goes in the bag, buy in season when you can and keep them cold until you bake. After that first pie, try swapping one apple for a local variety and see if you like it better.

source https://harvestsavvy.com/apples-for-apple-pie/