1. You can leave out the celery with no problem. 2. Yes, they're referring to sweet green bell peppers cut into quarters. 3. You can process in pints rather than quarts. It's always OK to size down but you can't size up. Do keep the time the same. 4. I can't give you an answer on the garlic. This is an unusually weak brine and garlic is in no way comparable to celery. You could acidify the garlic cloves by pouring boiling hot vinegar over them and soaking before adding to the jar but that's still no guarantee of safety. If you want an extra-garlicky flavor, it would be safer to use the single fresh clove and supplement with dried garlic flakes. It's up to you. Carol

One year we had a batch of left over green cherry toms - that would not ripen due to cold weather. I made a simple fermenting type brine, packed them in a jar with garlic and half of a dried Thai pepper. They were topped with the usual brine bag to shut out invading molds, etc., and allowed to ferment. I ground the resulting finished product in my processor, using it mostly for hamburger relish. It was great. While it wasn't quite the same as a tomatillo type relish, it was close. Bejay

I just made this and it is absolutely wonderful! Instead of the oregano I put fresh cilantro. I tripled the recipe and it made about 10 pints. I added more fresh garlic than what is called for AND I added about 1/2 cup granulated in there- maybe it's the Italian genes but I always have to have much more than required, lol. I also added about a tbsp of, shhh!, chicken boullin to counteract the extra tart from putting in an extra 1/2 cup of lemon juice. You can't taste it, but it balances it all out. Awesome, I know my family and friends will love this!

Powdered mustard can be too strong to add to a brine, and may offer an odd taste, as well as cloudiness or sediment. In a previous post from me, I mention the fact that dry ground mustard needs to 'sit' after rehydrating so the proper taste can 'bloom', which can take a few hours. It might be wise to make use of onions sliced thin or chopped. Also buying a bunch of FRESH dill weed will give you an option for a spice you may not be using. Plenty of garlic, but sliced very thin or finely chopped. Dill weed sold fresh in a bunch is quite cheap. If you are adament about spending even a dime on canning supplies, then you will end up with bland tasting canning in most cases. The banana peppers will become very soft once canned, as they are very sensitive to heat. Chopping for a relish or small pieces might be a good option. Green tomatoes can ripen indoors, so some may be able to get red after a week or two, but keep an eye on them. I place them in a big brown paper bag that hs an open top and set them on the floor to ripen. You can also dry peppers in a dehydrator if you have one. Canning anywhere is convenient if you have a nearby sink, and clean work surface. Then, for the processing for canning, you obviously need water, and high heat of some kind to bring it to a boil, as well as boiling the the product being canned. My mom used to make green tomato picililli, and used onions too. It had spices added, clove, allspice, cinammon, mustard seed, dill, ginger, and a few others. The more compliment of spices added, the more flavor it will have. The spices were just simmered in the vinegar brine, but werein a big spice bag, and it was left in the mixture even while canning began. I recall that the spices were in a cloth bag that would fill a 2-3 cup measuring cup. For the green tomato pic, she also added a bit of sugar and used apple cider vinegar as opposed to white vinegar. I made 'end of garden' pickles. These had my walking onions, cukes, carrots, and some peppers (mosty sweet red), and it was a spicy sweetened vinegar brine. They turned out great, as I even added garlic to the jars too. Hope you get more ideas!