Text Structure Examples When making pickles, Barbara Gibson first picks 3 or 4 dark green cucumbers from her garden. Then, she washes them in cold water. Next, she puts them in a jar. Over half of the cucumbers grown in the U.S. are used to make pickles. The average American eats about 106 pickles per year. Tapping the sides of a pickle jar’s lid breaks the jar’s vacuum seal. This makes it easier to open. What is a pickle? It is a cucumber soaked in vinegar and spices. A sweet pickle is sweeter than a dill pickle because it is made with sugar. However, both sweet pickles and dill pickles are made with cucumbers, spices, and vinegar. A pickle jar is sometimes hard to open. To solve this problem, tap the sides of the lid gently with a metal spoon.