Ignore my current zone, I used to live in central NH so I know your cuke season is brief. To me, nothing beats Chicago Pickling (a cheap and excellent heirloom) unless you have lots of disease challenges in your garden, in which case I'd go with Eureka--not quite as tasty, but vigorous. To get crunchy pickles, pick them small, put them in an ice bath right away and then pickle as soon as possible. For refrigerator pickles, calcium chloride helps keep them crunchy. For fermented (half-sours) you keep them crunchy by cutting off the blossom end of the cuke and adding tannins to the jar, from grape, oak, or horseradish leaves. That might help you with refrigerator pickles too. To me, the hardest part can be getting dill and cukes to be ready at the same time!

- colleen