Sasha's Kitchen: Homemade Sour Honey-Infused Pickles

This was my second attempt at pickle making. My first resulted in some quite good half sour pickles, although I have quite a bit to still learn about the chemistry of pickle making. Thus the result of these turned out to be a bit more on the sour side than I initially planned, but they were still quite good. Changing the balance of vinegar and water could give a bit of a more half-sour variant next time. The honey infusion with the sour pickle taste was quite lovely, and this is a great treat to make with organic local honey and farmers market cucumbers during the summer. A bit of tumeric gives a lovely bright yellow-green color. But beware of getting tumeric or pickle juice on your counter top, as it stains! This is loosely based on a recipe I found in Andrea Chesman's book on pickling.

Sasha's Homemade Sour Honey Infused Pickles
1 gallon (or full large stockpot)  plus 1 cup of water
1/3 cup Kosher salt
6 large ripe cucumbers, cut into spears (each cucumber should make 8 spears)
2 medium sized onions, sliced
3 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup of honey
2/3 cup of high quality maple syrup
1 1/2 T mustard seeds, whole
1 tsp tumeric
2 tsp celery seeds
3 sprigs of thyme

Combine the gallon of cold water and the salt and soak the cucumbers and onions in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, drain away the water. Combine the remaining cup of water with the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Then, remove from the heat, and add the cucumbers and onions. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10-15 minutes, before canning in sterile jars.