Bumping this topic, as we were talking about fermented pickles, and @galinas linked this thread.
Sounds interesting, one thing I don’t understand is the use of leaves, like black currant, horseradish, even oak. What is the purpose of these leaves. Someone mentioned they’re tannic? What does this do to the mixture?
They are, but mostly I use them for fragrance. Black currant gives a very special fragrance. Horseradish also gives some antifungal properties and sharp taste. Sour cherry leaves give fragrance and also make cucumbers more crunchy. Also, there is such thing as recipe. This recipe is actually very very old, from time they fermented to keep food for winter, and they did it in wooden barrels. I don’t think they really knew the chemistry of the leaves at that time, they came to it by trying. I follow 
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A small amount of tannin is supposed to help keep the pickles crisp and firm. I don’t use leaves, but just cause my recipe works without. Maybe I’ll try adding some someday.
I made pickles last year using cherry leaves from my ER & CJ on several jars, and several jars without. In the end I couldn’t tell the difference (mine seemed to be plenty crisp) so, so far this year I’ve made 33 quarts of dill and 3 quarts of bread and butter pickles without the cherry leaves.
The leaves may make a difference that others can detect though, but I couldn’t so I just removed that step of collecting and washing the leaves. Not saying I won’t ever do it again, because I might - I like seeing a couple leaves in the jars on the shelves and if they do aid in crispness that’d be a bonus 
The Mrs went out to get some dill out of the garden, and checked the cuke patch, which I thought was pretty much cleaned out after she picked them last week.
To hers and my surprise, she came back in with an apron full of them, maybe 5lb worth. We had just canned 7qt of fresh picked green beans, so she wanted to make some salt pickles. She had found a half gallon jug in the cellar and made the pickles while I was out mowing. Here is a pic of them, plus our first batch of canned half runner beans.
The pickles just had some dill along with the salt. The beans look a bit brown, as if they were burned, but we processed them for 25 minutes per the instructions. We’ll try a jar tomorrow to see how they taste.
