Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Pickling cucumbers are preferred because they have thinner skin and softer flesh, but you can pickle any cucumber. As mentioned, the crisper additive is the key to keep them from turning to mush.

 

Wife and I were getting sick of meals with summer squash and zucchini, so we ended pickling a bunch. 23 lbs of squash made 13 pints and 7 quarts. Its a sugar/cider vinegar brine with onion and sweet red peppers mixed in. This is new for us, but we tried a pint and it tastes really good, could be used as a side or a topping. Nice to have an option other than giving them away or blanching & freezing. Sorry for the crappy tablet photo:

 

If it's good now it will be even better in a few months. Pickled stuff gets better after it has some time to absorb all the flavors. I pickle all kinds of stuff. Carrots and green beans are two of my favorites.

 

Thats awesome! Sorry, when I said it was new to us, I meant pickling/canning squash in particular. We often stop harvesting because there's just too much. I also tried fermenting the squash this year and it actually turned out really good, basically tastes like fermented pickles with a different texture.

You said you've pickled green beans, have you ever made dilly beans?

 

When I pickle green beans I do dill, not sweet. Does that make them “dilly beans”?

 

Basically, but a true dilly bean recipe has some peppercorn & chili spice too.

 

Ha ha, I guess so. Dill and chili pepper flakes in white vinegar and salt. I've always referred to them as dilly beans but you probably just call it pickled beans.

 

I’ll try and snap some better pictures for you when I get home

 

Oh OK. Here is the recipe I use:

It's out of this book: https://www.backwoodshome.com/shop/product/growing-and-canning-your-own-food-2/
Most of my canning recipes come out of that book.

 

Yeah, I'd call those dilly beans; no peppercorns but with the mustard powder and chili powder they should have some bite.

 

They're pretty good. I have a few jars left from last year, gonna have to go open one.

 

Can you pm me a recipe? That sounds delicious

 

Yeah, I'll pull the card tonight.

 

Are they snappy or mushy when you open them?

 

Snappy. They aren't mushy at all.

 

Planted my seeds Memorial Day or sooner and have no flowers on pole beans yet. Thoughts?

 

Not sure. I haven't done pole beans in a number of years now; I use a bush variety called 'Provider' instead. I was using a pole variety called Fortex but they were hit or miss depending on the season. The Providers seem to bear really heavily twice a summer regardless of the weather.


Dilly Bean Recipe-
1) Clean and trim beans to length and pack in pint jars (wide mouth work best).
2) Add 2 garlic cloves, 1 fresh dill sprig, 1/4-1/2 tsp of ground cayenne pepper (depending on your tolerances), 1/2 tsp of mustard seed (or 1/4 if using ground seed) and 5-6 whole black peppercorns
3) Add hot brine (recipe below), leaving 1/2" headspace. Wipe the rims and add the lids
4) Process immediately in a water bath canner for 10 minutes (pressure canning not recommended; this is a high-acid recipe so it's not necessary and it'll just make your beans mushy)


Brine Recipe:
3.75 cups water
3.75 cups vinegar (I prefer cider but white works okay too)
1/3 cup pickling salt

Combine in a non-reactive pot and bring just to a boil. Turn heat to low and keep it hot, but don't leave it boiling (the evaporation will ruin your ratios if you let it simmer for too long)

This is a shelf-stable recipe, so no refrigeration required after processing.

 

I've grown Providers before, good beans. I switched to Dragon Tongue a few years ago. I like the Dragon Tongues begger because they don't get stringy and tough if you don't pick them right away. Plus they have really good flavor.

I think most pole beans have a pretty long growing season. Probably just aren't ready yet.

 

That was what I liked about the Fortex; you'd get 12" beans with no strings. But some years they didn't produce well at all, and some years they were loaded. The Providers are much more consistent, and using them frees up pole space for snap peas.