Enjoy!! Let me know what you think! Half Sour Pickles 5 Kirby Cucumbers ½ tsp coriander seeds ½ tsp mustard seeds ½ tsp black peppercorns Few sprigs of fresh dill 3 bay leaves 6 cloves garlic, minced ¼ cup sea salt 6 cups water Additional coriander seeds and peppercorns to add on top Optional – dried chili’s for a bit of heat. I recommend just one! Wash Cucumbers (you can quarter them now or leave them whole, it’s a matter of preference) Dissolved sea salt in water Grind all dry ingredients (coriander, mustard seeds, peppercorns and 2 of the bay leaves) Put the cucumbers in the jar with a few sprigs of dill Put minced garlic in jar, then spices (and optional chili) Add additional whole coriander seeds and peppercorns and remaining bay leaf Add the salt water mixture, making sure cucumbers are completely covered Put in the fridge and let them sit for at least 4 days

I picked up an entire selection of pickling spices - Bay leaves, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, celery seeds, dill seeds, Jamaican Allspice, black peppercorns, Szechuan peppercorns, red pepper flakes, yellow mustard seed, and curry powder - at a health food store yesterday. The only item on my list that they didn't have was brown mustard seed. There's a larger health food store on the other side of town. I'll to there for those seeds and the Kosher salt. Everything was so very fresh, in bulk, and sooo much cheaper than I would have paid for the jarred spices at a grocery store. My tomatoes here in North Dakota are just starting to come on with small green tomatoes. I plan on making several batches of these four versions of pickled green tomatoes. I've got everything ready...just waiting on the cherry and olive tomatoes to be fully grown but still green. http://www.gardenbetty.com/2011/08/four-ways-to-pickled-green-tomatoes/

I saw that ClearJel thickened soup. Perhaps her local Extension OK'd it. Doesn't mean I'd can it myself; however, it's always an option to email the person herself and see how she arrived at that recipe and who vetted it. I wouldn't automatically exclude or include based only on the information provided. However, in this case we're talking about ginger in 100% vinegar, not soup thickened with ClearJel, and I just can't see a problem. I might can it if I had sufficient to justify. I think one reason we're not generally seeing canning recipes for something like pickled ginger is it's not a high-demand product. It makes sense that someone in Santa Barbara would give it a shot. (This is not a blanket OK to can ginger, as it is a low-acid product. Ginger preserves, for instance, would require acidification not unlike pepper jelly, and I have not run across an approved recipe outside the commercial food preservation world.) Carol

Brined for 10 days? Do you mean they were fermented? Pickles are brined for a few hours or maybe overnight except for fruits and a couple of candied sweet pickles. If you are fermenting them and added too much salt to begin with for the weight of the food then since it has only been 10 days - which isn't very long - you can just add more cukes and okra to dilute the salty flavor and even add a bit of sugar and let it keep fermenting longer until the salt level drops. But if you want to stop the fermenting process instead, then yeah you can rinse and pack in the 1:1 vinegar/water mix of your choice. White gives a sharp, cider gives a more mellow flavor. But it won't eliminate all of the over-salty flavor. If you mean something other than fermenting could you tell us exactly what recipe you are using? Dave