My only thought is too long processing as I'm not always standing there when the reboil starts up. Or do I start timing once I've put the in the boiling water?

NCHFP lists 3 possible causes:

1. Placing cucumbers in too strong brine, too heavy syrup, or too strong vinegar.
2. Overcooking or overprocessing.
3..Dry weather. That means poor quality produce was perhaps being processed.

Cukes that were too old, too long since harvested will shrivel and wrinkle but from your info I' lay money on over-processing. You start timing from when the boil returns so you have to be there.

Assuming the water in the canner was already 180 or more as it should be and the jars were filled with boiling brine and hadn't cooled on the counter then it normally only takes a few minutes to come back to a boil.

Dave

I've been using regular 5% vinegar, does that matter? I'll try another batch and watch close now that kids are in bed. Goodness, good thing I have more beans than I know what to do with and they're still flowering! My fermented ones are good!

If it isn't the processing time then the next most likely cause is the produce itself. So question would be how old are these beans? How long since picked? Were they still hard and crisp when picked?

Can you post a picture of a jar of the wrinkled ones?

Dave

They were a day old, kept in the fridge. Didn't seem soft

Those all look fine to me. Some of them were picked a little late so are large and the beans inside are well formed. That is what is causing the wrinkling.

It can be hard to keep up with the bean picking this time of year but try to pick them before the beans inside form for best results. And be sure to keep them really well watered too for the best uniform bean formation.

Dave

can I use wrinkled cucumbers that are still firm to make pickle relish

If they are still firm and crunchy, you can grind them up for relish. The relish gets soft anyway, when it's simmered.

Of course, this is probably too late, since it's been 3 days since you asked.

Annie