Can you give us a botanical/Latin name Nancy? If you're talking about Physalis edulis, a small relative of the tomatillo family: I let them ripen on the vine until they're yellow. Most get eaten while I'm in the garden. I bury the ones the birds get to first in one place, mark it, and have seedlings for next year. Surplus? Substitute for apples in any pie recipe, but I'm not sure about acid/pectin content when making jam.

I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I asked a similar question here at GW my first year gardening and (I think it was Linda Lou, but can't remember for certain now) that suggested that I keep my cucumbers in an ice-water bath in the fridge for up to a week. (My personal record is 2 week hee hee). Since cucumbers are about 80% water no matter how you store them they will shrivel up if you don't store them IN water. BEGIN AT THE SINK. I start by placing my cake cooling rack across the sink as a "wire-shelf" because not only will you have spillage, in this case you actually WANT spillage. Using a large Tupperware (or similar) container with a tight fitting (sealable) lid, place your cucumbers in the bowl and cover with ice. Fill just to overflowing with water. When you put the lid on, instead of "burping" air you will want to "burp" a little water out to ensure there is no air at all and store in the coldest part of your refrigerator. Add ice daily (or as needed, I have had ice last a couple of days) until your ready to pickle. This is now standard storage practice for pickling cukes in my house every year until I have enough ready to can. :) Best Wishes Amino-X

Yes, cutting off the blossom end is VERY important!! This end contains enzymes that can spoil a brine and make unpredicatble results. I usually cut both ends off when I make half sour fermented cukes. Its a way to get the brine inside much quicker, as they just sit out 2-3 days, and then the fridge. The vinegar I use is a tiny amount and is added only after they are placed in the fridge. It helps slow down any further fermenting if it were to continue under cold storage. Even though there are millios of pickle recipes, and some written by note worthy people, they still can be of questionable nature to the home canner and current safety standards. Yes, you can make a relish. I have several huge overgrown picklers (one weighs almost 2 pounds!), that will get cut open, seeds removed (tough!) and onions added. It will be a sweet pickle relish, with white and cider vinegar, Splenda, celery seed, mustard seed, and a bit of dill seeds. I also like to add a dash of green food coloring to give it the 'commercial look'.

Because the recipe uses all vinegar and no water I believe it is safe. One thing is that in the old days vinegar was a little stronger than the 5% of today. I would not use the alum. sounds to me like the addition of an aluminum metal that is technically a heavy metal and not good for eating. I think in the old days alum was used but is not used today. Other experts around here can give you better information on alum. I really never have used it. Let me say this. Salt does not really preserve. So you can go here with low salt and no salt. The vinegar does all the preserving. The sugar is fine with the vinegar to cut the sour taste of the vinegar. so I would do the recipe for myself with no or low salt. I would add sugar to where I like the taste best. I personally would not heat process the batch but I think everyone around here except me, will say you must heat treat the bottles. I say as long as your pH is below 4.0 then everything is fine. no heat needed. vinegar is very sterilizing. very powerful chemical. also you will be told to chop off a tiny amount of the blossom end of the pickle as there are enzymes there that cause the pickle to soften. No need to use the crock. You can do this in individual jars. Just put in some pickles and add vinegar to fill the jar.