I have heard of some old timers around here using honey as dip for cuttings and wounds. I have never tried it though.

So now I do oxymoron often?? Well, if you look at your snide remark and think that you are the biggest know it all here, your mighty mistaken. I don't claim to be an expert on evrything, but all my years and my need to find out about everything I do, gives me the edge on others too timid to persue some areas they are not familiar with. Just and FYI , the OLDER Mrs. Wages products I have don't list alum of any kind in the mixes. None of mine here list alum anyway. It looks like your attempting to punch holes into everything I write, its either envy that you are into, or you simply don't like to go with the flow and take everything with a grain of salt, or is that alum, or is it nitrate, or nitrite. Even VEGETABLES have nitrites in them, if you didn't know!! Any bacon you buy, salami, pepperoni, and even hams are all made with nitrates, not to mention any and all sausages and even hot dogs. Thats not the half of it either, as many cold cuts including corned beef, pastrami, and a lot more meats use it. The reason is simple, its used in very minute amounts to prevent food poisoning. Thats the main reason I do NOT like using the Morton Tender Quick salt curing mix. In beef eColi and other nasties in meats are very dangerous. I have never seen a ham that was not treated with some kind of a nitrate product and for you to make a statement that your neighbors butcher shop doesn't use it, is just like home canning with no heat processing taken place. They are risking the health of others. They only other way to prevent poison meats is to add a lot more salt. Also, I use a product called 'erythorbic acid' that prevents any bad side issues (cancers) if nitrites are used in meats. See link below. The 'pink, is only colored salt to identify it as being more than just plain salt, and the salt is mixed with nitrites so that they can be measured more accurately. A 20 pound batch of meat uses just 10-15 grams of the 'Prage powder' to help it produce nitrogen that will kill bacteria like eColi and others. The nitrite is only about 2% of the salt mixed with the nitrite, so 20 grams of these standard mixed curing powders would have a very tiny amount of nitrites in the mg range. In the raw, a person could get sick if they ingested 20 grams or more of PURE nitrites, but if you ate 50 pounds of meat at one sitting, that was cured with it, you have no worry even for that. If nitrites cause cancer, why isn't it banned? They should also ban cigarettes and alcohol. These are all things our bodies are not equipt to deal with. I refuse to agrue with you any further as your comments are less than being even nice to me or anything I write about. If you dislike my writings, ignore me and I will do the same. By to belittle me and claim things like you wrote, are less than being friendly. Here is a link that might be useful: Nitrites in meats

Ken - thanks for the link; I just purchased 1.6# bag for future use. And thanks to all of you for the info on lime and alum - I've saved this in my canning recipe folder for future reference. For those of you who may need it -here's Ken's proportions for the calcium chloride: "The Ball Pickle Crisp photo is located in another post about this product. According to the Ball package, they use 1.5 teaspoons per quart and 3/4 teaspoon per pint. Because of the larger granule size of the Bulk Foods CC, I recommend 2 teaspoons per quart and 1 teaspoon per pint jar of pickles. I add it just prior to filling each jar with the brine. But it can also be added at the top of the packed cukes just before they get the boiling brine added. In that step, you do hear a fizzing noise when the acid comes in contact with the alkali CC. In that same thread of the Ball PC photo, it also can be used in place of a lime presoak." Kathi

My cucumbers were eaten right after germination so I don't have the dukes for pickling...any idea where I can buy say 10 lbs?