This thread is so perfect for me because I currently have a pile of cukes I need to use up before I leave on vacation. Right now I'm making these refrigerator pickles: http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/06/bread-and-butter-pickles/ Last night I made a variation on the cucumber/yogurt food processor soup: 2 medium cucumbers- roughly chopped 1.5 cups lowfat plain yogurt 1 finely diced scallion 2 crushed garlic cloves swirl of olive oil chopped flat leaf parsley chopped tarragon chopped chives chopped dill half a small jalepeno, finely diced (if you like a kick of spice) salt and pepper Puree it all in the food processor or blender. Chill for at least an hour I served it with some diced cucumber added to give it some crunch and floated thinly sliced avocados on top. Yum!

Hello all, Not sure if it's ok to post this here - but thought you might be interested! http://www.fanshawec.ca/EN/htn1/program/Open_Garden.htm "Fanshawe College Opens Gates to Cuddy Property in St. Thomas on June 5 th 10-4 and 6th 11-4 to Honour the Legacy of A.M. (Mac) Cuddy." The A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Gardens, owned by Fanshawe College and managed by the Horticulture Technician Program, feature one of the largest collections of plants in Ontario. A.M. (Mac) Cuddy Garden In 2007, Patricia VanOmen Cuddy, widow of the late A.M. (Mac) Cuddy, donated the property known for decades as Cuddy Gardens to Fanshawe College. This living legacy is comprised of a lush and unique garden stretching over more than five acres and thrives under the constant attention of the horticulture students and specialists at Fanshawe. It also includes the century-old residence where Mac Cuddy and his family lived for more than 56 years. Over 2,000 species are displayed in dry, rock, woodland, perennial, rose and aquatic gardens. Several plants found in the garden, such as the indigenous Cucumber Magnolia and the Yellow Trillium, are on the endangered species list.

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!

Loves2cook, I've made a couple of jars of pear taffy myself. (grin) It happens. The stuff that doesn't set up I also use as sauce, as syrup on pancakes or Ashley just dunks her toast into a puddle of it on her plate, she says she gets jam on every bite that way. The sweet relish recipe? I'm happy to share. I spent over a decade trying to recreate Grandma's relish after she passed away. I never got it right. One day when I was visiting my Aunt Lulabelle, she was canning relish. I tasted and it was amazingly like Grandma's. She's my Dad's sister and my Grandma was my maternal Grandmother. Didn't stop her from giving Aunt Lulabelle that recipe at least 20 years before, LOL, and so it came back to me, via my Dad's side of the family. CUCUMBER RELISH (GRANDMAÂS RECIPE) 4 cups ground cucumbers 4 large onions, ground up 4 green peppers, ground up 1 or 2 red peppers, ground up 1 tbls. Salt 4 tsp celery seed 2 tsp. Turmeric ½ tsp. Pepper 4 cups vinegar 4 cups sugar Combine veggies and salt and let stand for 2 hours. Drain well, add rest of ingredients and cook slowly for 1 hour. Pack hot into hot jars and process in boiling water bath 15 minutes for pints. Makes 6  8 pints I don't have any "secret" recipes, I'm always happy to share. If any were to make me famous, it would have been Annie's Salsa, but that's already everywhere, too late to keep it secret. (grin) Annie