Hi Donna - this is a fairly frequent question over on the Harvest forum - the forum for food preservation, canning, etc. - and most all the pickle makers agree that using pickling cucumbers rather than slicing varieties makes all the difference in the end quality. That and pickling them while fresh picked from the vine. The slicers have much more water in them than the pickling varieties do so they go mushy rather than staying firm and crisp as picklers do. Several discussions over there on favorite pickling varieties if interested. Dave

Total newbie here but I figured I'd put in my 2 cents. I started container gardening this year and I have 4 picklebush and 2 burpless (which I found out too late are not great for pickling so I've been giving them away). With my 4 picklebush, I get 6-10 ripe cukes a day so I can do a small batch of pickles every day or two. I've been using the Ball Kosher Dill mix in a can just because I can easily do whatever size batch I have ready. I want to try some other mixes and making my own but so far the Ball is all I've done. I'm a working single mom with two little boys so "quick and easy" is a must. I bring in a few cukes and wash them, put the pickle mix and vinegar on the stove while I slice the cukes and put them in jars, pour the boiling liquid into the jars and that's it. I've been keeping them in the fridge because I didn't have a big pot that would work on my glass-top stove for actually canning them but I got one this weekend so we'll see how much trouble that step adds. With ~10 cukes, I can fill 3 small (12 oz?) jars which is perfect for a batch and coincidentally, that's just how many cukes I have ripe every day or so. My very picky 7-year old tasted a homemade pickle for the first time yesterday. He thought about it for a minute and then exclaimed "It tastes just a like a real one!" which I think he meant as a compliment? If you're on a low-sodium diet, the Ball mix may be way too salty for you. I like salty stuff but they're right on the borderline for me. That didn't stop me from eating a whole jar by myself last night without even realizing it! My friend swears by Mrs. Wage's kosher dill mix but I like the flexibility to do a smaller batch so I haven't tried that yet. For me, growing picklebush has been very easy and very forgiving. Mine have been through some abuse since I was just learning and started them in small pots, then moved them to bigger ones, didn't trellis them at first and added a trellis after the fact, overwater, underwater, GA heat, etc. They've thrived in spite of it all. I think disease is less of a concern when you're growing in containers because you start with "clean" soil but pests haven't been a problem for me. There are always lots of bugs around those plants but they haven't caused any problems yet. With cukes you can't forget to pick them because they grow so fast. A little baby may be only an inch long this morning and 4 inches tomorrow!

There are many ways to 'do' pickles. Linda Lou has several recipes, for various types. My Claussen type half sours are made with just salt and water, as well as very fresh cukes. I posted my method several times in previous messages. My Polish grandmother taught me how to taste the salt brine to determine when its at the correct proportion as far as salt and water. Because I like a bit more dill flavor, I also use some of the prepackaged mixes from Ball and Mrs. Wages. These are the ones that have dill extracts and salt. When making the brines, I have to taste it to see when it reaches the salt level where its not tasting salty anymore, but instead, seems to become sweet tasting, as well as 'mouth watering'. If not enough salt is used, it can taste salty, and if too much salt, it will taste bitter. I usually pack the jars with fresh dill seed heads (the seeds are still green and bulging) and lots of dill weed, as well as lots of garlic cut up. The cukes are very fresh and both ends are cut off. They get tightly packed in the jars and the brine is poured in to cover them. The are NOT processed in any way, but remain on the counter about 2-3 days. Then, I pour in about a tablesoon of white vinegar and place in the fridge. About a week later they can be eaten, but if I make a lot, they can keep up to a year in the frige. Mine never get moldy on top, so thats a good indication that there is the proper blance of salt/water and cold from the fridge. Linda Lou has some similar 'measured' recipes, but most everyting I make is done by taste and I usually don't follow any recipes. Even make bread, sausages, and other things without any recipes. When I make a vinegar bsed pickle, I don't usually use much added water, but instead of just fresh herbs, I like to use the mixes, which usually offer more flavor. For sweet pickles, I used a very small amount of Splenda, compared to 'tons' or sugar. The end result is a very tasty pickle, and a whole quart jar can be eaten in one sitting. My half sours are made in 1/2 gallon Ball jars.

I never got sick either, but a bunch of family members got sick from eating my Aunt Midge's pickled mushrooms at a family party once. It kind of takes the fun out of an evening, watching Aunt Esther barf in the bushes..... It does happen, although it doesn't happen often, in my experience. Some cases of botulism do come from home canned foods and some people do die, although not many. The risk is relatively miniscule. Many cases come from the same area, like a whole bunch of people in Alaska that ate badly canned salmon. Others come from commerical items like that Bolthouse Farms carrot juice and the baked potatoes at the restaurant that were wrapped in foil and left sitting on the counter for hours. The "rules" in Canada are different than the "rules" in the United States because we are loathe to take any risk at all, IMO. The extension services do not want the liability of someone coming back and saying "you said it was all right and now I'm sick". I don't think it's necessarily the government's job to protect us from our own cooking, but many people do. The guidelines are extremely conservative, IMO, but very safe. I do not know Canada's testing specificiations, or any other country's, for that matter, so do they know something we don't know or are they more independent or bigger risk takers? Beats me. At any rate, there's a risk, albeit extremely small. Maybe even smaller than that, LOL. I choose to take it, and it's my choice. I'd eat LindaC's jelly too. Oh, that's right, I already have! It's the "don't" part that got my back hairs raised, I'd rather see a "did you know that it's not tested, I just thought I'd let you know" approach. And agmss, I agree, the Search function here is abysmal, next to useless. Ugh. I don't even try to use it anymore, I just Google "gardenweb" and whatever I'm looking for. Annie