14 Day Sweet Pickles

This is a recipe that my mom made when I was a kid, so as I recently bought some canning supplies, I decided I'd give it a try.

It sounds daunting given that it takes 14 days of preparation, but most of that time is spent with the pickles just sitting in one solution or another.  And the results are worth the effort.

Step 1: Ingredients

This is the original recipe:
75 3 to 3 1/2 inch cucumbers
2 cups coarse pickling salt
4 gallons water
3 Tbsp powdered alum
10 cups sugar
5 cups vinegar
18 drops oil of cinnamon
18 drops oil of cloves
2 Tbsp celery seeds

I cut this down to roughly 1/3, since there were about 20 small cucumbers in the 2 pints I bought at the farmer's market.

So here is the cut down version I'm using:
20 small cucumbers
2/3 cup coarse pickling salt
1 1/3 gallons water (divided into 1/3 gallons)
1 Tbsp powdered alum (divided into 1/3 Tbsps)
3 1/3 cups sugar
1 2/3 cups vinegar
6 drops cinnamon oil
6 drops clove oil
2 tsp celery seeds