How ‘Little House’ Alum Melissa Gilbert Made ‘Stupid Good’ Pickles During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Not too long before the COVID-19 pandemic, Little House on the Prairie alum Melissa Gilbert and her husband thirtysomething actor Timothy Busfield bought a little cabin in the Catskills. When March 2020 came, the home acted as a safe haven for the couple. Along with playing wiffle ball and raising chickens, gardening is something Gilbert got really into. Of her bountiful harvest, her cucumbers-turned-pickles were among her favorites.

The types of cucumbers Gilbert planted 

Gilbert’s garden was overflowing with goodies throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the first vegetables to be ready for picking were the cucumbers. 

“I had planted a mix of English and Boston pickling cucumbers, the latter especially for making sour pickles,” she wrote in her 2022 memoir, Back to the Prairie. “They were short and firm, their skin much thinner than their longer, more traditional English cousins. I brought in a ton of them. They arrived on the plant in an exciting plentitude that had me imagining all the different types of pickles we could make-whole, bread and butter, etc.”

The former Laura Ingalls actor decided to go in a different direction than dills. To make dill pickles, Kirby cucumbers are recommended and Gilbert didn’t plant any of those.  

The pickling process

Gilbert had made jellies and jams before, so she had the necessary canning equipment to make pickles. She scrolled through various recipes online until she found a couple that she liked. 

“Everything else was simple,” she wrote. “For the sour pickles, I made a brine with water, salt, garlic, chili peppers, and dill among the major ingredients, brought it to a boil, sliced the cucumbers and put them in jars, poured the brine over them, closed the jar, boiled the jar, and put them in the pantry to sit and ferment for at least three days.”

For the bread and butter pickles, the actor repeated the same steps but with different ingredients: “including thinly sliced onions, apple cider vinegar and white vinegar, both brown and white sugar, and mustard and celery seeds.”

Once the bread and butter pickles were sealed in their jars, Gilbert put them in the fridge to chill for a few days.  

The pickles were a big hit

In three days, when the pickles were good and ready, Gilbert sampled her experiment with her husband watching. 

“I tried one of the bread and butter pickles,” she wrote. “My face said everything. I didn’t have to utter a single word to express the fireworks going on in my mouth, but did anyway: ‘These. Are. Stupid.’ I alternated between the two types but brought jars of pickles to every meal and every outing to the beach.”

Busfield agreed, as did the family and friends who visited the couple during the pandemic. 

In addition to the pickles, Gilbert and Busfield harvested green beans, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Making salads with the goodies from their garden provided a lot of joy for the couple, and a lot of delicious meals.  

“Nothing beat running out to the garden and grabbing some lettuce, a pepper, and a couple of tomatoes; slicing them up; tossing them together, portioning it all out, and watching our eyes light up,” wrote Gilbert. “We grew that! It’s stupid good! It’s so good it’s stupid!”