Thanks Ken. You may not be an expert (just kidding), but you have had a lot of good information. In this post along with many others I have read through. Thanks Linda Lou. I don't think these pickles will last that long around here anyway. Just wanted to check in case I make more. I may have to sooner than I think. I was going to pick another load of cukes today. I may have enough for 2 batches now. We got some heavy rain last night. So many of my cukes have swelled up so fast my trellis is about to fall over from the weight. It's not staked very good, and until now, had not been a problem. I may make some relish too. I'll just have to cut out some seeds because I think some of the cukes are a little bigger than I wanted. I think I need to get some more jars. This is kind of late to ask this question, but I didn't think of it until last night while reboiling the syrup. My question is...When draining the syrup to reboil and pour over the pickles, do you leave the spice bag with the pickles or do you keep it in the syrup and boil with it? I didn't think it would make much of a difference, but I have been leaving it in the syrup when I bring it back to a boil. Could this make the spices even stronger only because they are getting heated to a higher temp for a longer period of time. Paul

I did something similar today. I picked a few figs from my neighbor's tree. I had 15 ounces of figs and added 12 ounces of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. I wanted to take some to my mother tonight so skipped the overnight step. I used a 2 1/2 quart saucepan and turned on very low until the sugar dissolved. Then I turned it up and cooked it until it was ready. It made 1 3/4 jars. Mom gets the full one. (We used to make fig preserves every year from my grandparents' huge tree. I still miss that tree. We bought one to plant at our house now that we aren't moving around any more.)

Ate a pod last night. Unbelievably good! Brine was white vinegar and water, a bit of salt. Added some dill and and pickling spice, a garlic clove. No sugar. One very hot red pepper of no known name. 1/4 tsp pickle crisp in the pint. They were very loosely pack raw with boiling brine and the next day I added a couple more pods when they were ready. Next year I am filling up the sunnier garden with okra and protecting it from bunnies! Man I wish I had more!

Claire, it's so easy it's embarrassing, the first time I made one I was astounded, I was just sure it would stick to the towel and not unroll, or break apart or SOMETHING. Of course it didn't. I will point out, though, that you should roll it up in a smooth linen towel, not a terry cloth one, or you'll have a fuzzy pumpkin roll. Ask me how I know.....sigh. Mindy, I'll post the banana doughnut recipe on a new thread, so it doesn't get "lost". It was actually stepmom's favorite of the two. Annie