My Mom made pickles using hydrated lime. You soaked them at least 24 hours in this solution and it really make them crisp. And they were sweet tart, an aquired taste. I loved them but not many people do. Here is a similar recipe using zucchini. I will have to look up my Mom's cuke recipe. Clare Zucchini Pickles 1 gallon zucchini -- prepared as directed 1 cup hydrated lime -- * see note 1 gallon cold water 6 cups vinegar 1 tablespoon salt 3 tablespoons pickling spice 10 cups sugar 2 tablespoons green food coloring Combine cold water and lime in large crock, stir to mix. Stir in zucchini cubes and let stand for 24 hours, stirring from the bottom several times to circulate the lime. Pour off water and rinse. Let stand in fresh water for 3 hours. Meanwhile; combine vinegar, salt, sugar, spices and green food coloring in a large kettle, bring to a boil to dissolve sugar. Drain water off zucchini and then pour syrup over the zucchini in the crock, let stand for another 24 hours. After that time, simmer zucchini and syrup in large kettle for 35 minutes or until transparent. Seal in jars. Makes 1 gallon of pickles. NOTES : Peel and seed large zucchini, cut into 1" cubes. You can find hydrated lime at feed and seed stores, make sure you tell the salesperson it is for making pickles. Lime is sometimes used as a presoak for extra crispness. Lime may be purchased from a building supply or farm and garden supply store. Non?hydrated lime is calcium oxide. Hydrated or slaked lime is calcium hydroxide. Either hydrated or non?hydrated lime can be used. Like alum, lime is not necessary if fresh vegetables and good methods are used. Use ¼ to ½ cup lime in a gallon of water. Soak cucumbers overnight. Rinse several times with clear water.

bragu, I think beets are one of those things that you like or you don't. I love beets but don't like pickles so much. Other family members like pickles and not beets, LOL. Some like both and every year I can pickled beets, either red or golden, depending on what's available when I have time to do them. I use Grandma's old recipe for some family members and the one with pickling spice for others. I did win a Grand Champion ribbon at the fair a couple of years before COVID with the pickled golden beets, but they are much milder than the red ones and the pickling process seems to take away most of the earthy flavor. Annie

Welcome Charlene! Your garden sounds so nice. And your pickles are fine, but I'll go point-by-point to make sure I hit all the important stuff. "-We ran them through the dishwasher" Good, you need clean jars, and they are less likely to break if they are hot when you pour in the brine. "-We brought to a low boil simmer:" Fine. You can also find brines that have some water to make the pickles less tart, but you want to use a tested recipe that is at least 50% vinegar. I would skip the alum. It's a form of aluminum, which is not great to ingest. Next time you can use Pickle Crisp, which is calcium chloride powder to add to each jar; it's sold at Walmart near the canning jars. But alum would not stop me from eating this batch of pickles. "we did not use tongs or anything just used our hands." I always pack jars with clean hands. "BUT we ran out of the vinegar solution" As long as the recipe didn't say to boil the brine for x minutes before using, you are fine. You did right using the same ingredients. The only danger in waiting to fill the last two jars is if they get cold, the hot brine may cause thermal shock & break the jars, which obviously didn't happen. "-We put the cap w/rubber seal and screwed the tops on tight from the dishwasher" This is ok for fridge pickles. When you can in a boiling water bath, you will want to put the tops on "fingertip tight," in other words using your fingertips & turning just until you meet resistance. This leaves room for the air to expand out of the jar, which creates a vacuum seal upon cooling. "-Let them sit out for two hours to room temperature" This is ok too. Normally you want to get food cold asap to avoid bacterial growth, but for pickles it's probably not a huge deal. If you do put them straight in the fridge, you should go for rack-bottom shelf, not a flat glass shelf which will speed heat transfer from the bottom & possibly cause breakage (brine in the fridge is a nightmare, I can tell you that from personal experience). You are right that fridge pickle jars do not seal. They will be crisper than pickles that have been heated in a boiling water bath. So, the things I would change for next time are the alum and the time between filling & refrigerating. Also, I prefer to use a tested recipe from the Ball Blue Book, from the USDA, or from a forum member who gives the recipe's credentials. About the two months...I sometimes keep things way longer than I'm supposed to. Pickles are one of the safest products to can as long as you use enough vinegar, which you did. Personally I wouldn't choose to give them away after the "expiration date," but I would keep eating them until they were finished, or until they showed signs of spoilage like unusually soft or slimy pickles, mold floating in jars, bad smell. Open kettle canning is when you start out like you did, but then you put the jars on the shelf instead of in the fridge. It is no longer recommended by the USDA for any products. There are people who still do it, but I think it's best not to do it unless a person has a lot of experience and can really predict how that will affect the food (e.g., for jam, you will notice if it gets moldy, but other foods may be more sneaky about spoiling). A few other notes about pickles: as long as you have 50% vinegar, you can add whatever spices you like (but adding 1/4 cup of dill might count as another vegetable instead of a spice!). Other vegetables may need more vinegar, e.g. garlic must be pickled in 100% vinegar. Some recipes can be processed for longer times at 180F to try to make them less soft than boiling (known as low-temperature pasteurization), but make sure the recipe is approved for this method. Here is a link to a discussion of pickles that has a few different recipes and a discussion of fridge pickles. Enjoy your pickles and the time with your son! Melissa

Oh joy! Good it worked. Nice plump ones Annie. So many ways to get there. Same with making mustards. You can take 2/3rd's and stick blend, add some mustard flour like Coleman's, horseradish, yogurt, fresh or dried herbs.... I added a big blob to my taco sauce last night. This jar, where the black rubber band is located, is the dry seed fill line. Added a squirt of AC vinegar and filled with hot water. Sat back of counter for a few hours and it more than doubled. Somewhere around 12-18 depending on your room temp, they will start to sprout and on their way to plants. Not noticeable until about 24hours being such small seed. Sprinkled on just an inch of clean soil, (I use coir), they will be salad in about 6-10 days depending on temp...same seed you use to make your mustard pickle.