If that scum is white and a bit "fluffy" then it's likely to be yeast. You can tell the difference between yeast and mold. Mold would be the usual blue furry spots floating in the mixture. That would be something to worry about. A brine bag is not only to hold the cucumbers down below the brine, it's also to keep out the air. When you removed it, you exposed the brine to lots of air, which encouraged the formation of yeast. Take out a pickle. Is it firm? Cut it lengthwise. Is it a translucent olive green? Smell it. It should smell good. If it passes all those tests, then taste. If the cucumbers are firm, smell nice and taste good, you're fine and so are they. If you want to use the brine, you need to strain and boil it. I prefer to rinse the pickles and use a fresh finishing brine because the original brine is "funky" to me, but assuming the brine is uncontaminated, you can re-use it. Carol

They should be in suspension, in some sort of liquid. Either the tom juice itself, or, if that's scant, a tad of added water. The seeds are "done" when (a) the brew begins to pong; and (b) there's a raft of, um, mouldy scum sitting on top of the liquid with the seeds underneath. Scrape off the mouldy scum, then begin a rinsing process. And there are basically two methods. 1: Add water to the container, swirl, then let the seeds settle. The healthy ones settle to the bottom, the rubbish floats to the top. Carefully drain off the rubbish at the top, and the scummy water, making sure you don't tip out any of the healthy seeds. Add water again and repeat the procedure. Eventually, you will end up with clean, healthy seeds and clean water. Tip the seeds into a fine strainer, drain the water, then spread the seeds for drying. Don't use tissue or kitchen paper. It will stick to the seeds. I use coffee filter papers. They absorb the moisture without grabbing onto the seeds. 2: The simple method. After removing the raft of mouldy scum, tip the seeds into a fine strainer, put it under a tap, and blast with water until the seeds are clean. Making sure you don't blast any seeds down the sink! Then spread for drying.

That has happened. Fedco which is a local seed/bulb/tree company sells them most years. John Bunker is an amazing source of knowledge about local old varieties of fruit trees. Btw if you are in Maine in the spring in a non pandemic year - the Fedco tree sale is worth checking out. Or even just the catalog. Midwinter I can spend time imagining fantasy orchards with no blights, droughts or porcupines... https://fedcoseeds.com/trees/list-apples

Yes, it sounds like the pint size will fit the Jillmos better. For future odd weighting situations, don't forget to try using a bag of water as a weight... like a sealed sandwich or quart size bag with water in it, and use another sealed bag over it, just in case of a leak. :) The water-filled bags can take on some weird shapes to fill the voids and keep things weighted down under brine.