Sharen wrote: . . .and, you don't have the fumes burning your eyes (unless you grind downwind. . .) Hey, the first person to perfect the radio-controlled chile grinder is going to make a fortune! Or, for the high end of the market, maybe something more like one of those remote-controlled bomb neutralizing robots. These days I'm leafing through the Ball company canning book, scanning for recipes using what's coming from our garden now. I see a few recipes calling for optional whole dried chiles - I'd never thought of putting a dried chile into a pickling mix. I always thought drying was a way to save them in itself, but maybe that's exactly how it is that you might have them available in place of fresh when you're pickling. So I wonder what you get, a leathery pod floating on the top of the mix? Alex Silbajoris 72163.1353@compuserve.com packing pickled peppers: "the Wall of Ball"