Here you go moonphase. These are really good and they stay crispy! I did mine in spears rather than chunks and it worked just fine. Notice that you don't cut them until the 5th day when you put the syrup over them. Sweet pickle chunks (as posted by Linda Lou) Pour boiling water over 24 pickling cukes for 4 days. On 5th day, drain, add this syrup.Cut cukes in chunks. 8 cups sugar 4 cups cider vinegar 5% acidity 3 1/2 tsp. pickling and canning salt 2 Tbsp. pickling spices, tied in a bag. Drain and heat syrup for 3 more days.(It is the same batch of syrup, just drain and reheat.I get lots of questions about that part.) On 4th day, pack pickles into jars, seal with lid. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes. I love these with tuna! NOTE!! You know, I just read through this and it doesn't say, but on the last day, you need to heat the syrup again, pack the pickles into jars, cover with syrup leaving about 1/2" headspace, put on 2-piece lids and process in BWB for 10 minutes. Oh!.............and good luck having enough to can........after all the sampling that seems to go on, it makes a lot less!! Might want to do a double batch!! hee hee hee Deanna

When I use spices for pickling and just want the flavors, I just pour them into the boiling vinegar, and allow them to simmer about an hour. Then, I pour out the mixture into a sieve to get out the larger bits, then through a second sieve that has a much finer mesh that will remove most of the smaller stuff, except maybe fine sediment. I used this method to make a batch of mustard pickles, and used both yellow and brown mustard seeds ground up. After an hour of simmering, they were easy to remove. Then I added the necessary salt, Splenda, ground yellow mustard powder, a small jar of yellow mustard, and a little garlic. The brine was also colored with some tumeric for that necessary bright yellow color. The jars were tightly packed with cukes, sweet red and green pepper pieces, cauliflower, whole small onions. Because these tend to shrink a little, I placed the packed jars in the microwave to heat them up a little before filling them with the mustard sauce. This helped to give them a bit more space for packing in a few more. Next, I added a thickener to make a mustard sauce. I used a National Starch sample called 'Prema 300' which is designed for use in low pH foods and is used by the canning industry (like Clear Jel). It was a sauce, so it needed to be poured in the packed jars slowly, using the bubble freer that Ball 'accessory'. The pickles were processed for 25 minutes as quarts and 20 minutes as pints. I felt that because of the sauce, it was necessary to have a little longer process time. There was no water added, only white, and cider vinegar, as well as a little white wine vinegar (also 5%). The chunks were a bit smaller than for Lind Lou's recipe. Its my first batch of Mustard pickle in over 20 years and the mustard sauce is really nice tasting on its own. I still have a quart of the mustard sauceleft, so will use the rest to make a few more jars when I get more cukes.

The pickles will be fine even after the 12 hour delay. Continue with the process as directed.

I'm also glad to repost, for a fee. LOL What did Linda Lou charge you? My bill is twice that, because I know she's big hearted and wouldn't charge enough. (grin) ANNIEÂS SALSA 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained 2 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper 3 Â 5 chopped jalapenos 6 cloves minced garlic 2 tsp cumin 2 tsp pepper 1/8 cup canning salt 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 1/3 cup sugar 1 cup vinegar (I use cider vinegar) 16 oz. tomato sauce 16 oz tomato paste Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process in a BWB 15 minutes for pints, 20 minutes for quarts. Makes 6 pints This salsa recipe is easily tweaked to suit nearly any taste. Just keep the amount of low acid vegetables the same. Those 4 cups of peppers and onions can be more onions, less peppers, any color of pepper. If you add more hot peppers, reduce the amount of something else. Leave out the sugar if you think it's too sweet. Taste, taste, taste. (grin) Remember, it will get a little hotter upon sitting for a couple of weeks, and I often use a combination of jalapenos, habaneros, serranos or whatever hot peppers I can get my hands on. You can keep the tomato sauce and paste or leave it out, your choice. I only use it for the texture, I like thick and chunky salsa. Happy Canning. Annie