Canned Dilly Beans (pickled green beans)

Every year for Christmas my grandma in Washington sends us grand kids a jar of homemade jam, and a jar of dilly beans (along with other homemade gifts). Her dilly beans (pickled green beans) are so yummy. In fact,  I'd say they are the best!  It's a recipe I debated whether or not to share, because as it is my grandmothers recipe, it is special to me and I wanted to be selfish with it. The more I thought about it, I decided maybe someone else will be able to make it special, a recipe they can hand down to their kids and grand kids. It's pretty simple, but Oh. So. Good.

I hope you enjoy it.

Gramma Annie's Dilly Beans
yield: 8 pints

Ingredients
4-5 lbs fresh green beans
12-16 heads of fresh dill (2 per jar)
1-2 clovers Garlic (per jar)
4 cups Apple Cider Vinegar (5% acidity)
4 cups water
1/2 cup pickling salt
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes  (1-2 flakes per jar)

Directions
1) Wash and trim ends from the green beans and cut them into 4 inch length.
2) In a 3-4 quart saucepan, combine vinegar water and salt. Bring it to a boil.
3) Meanwhile, take your sanitized hot jars and place 1-2 sprigs of dill, 1 garlic clove and your 1-2 red pepper flakes into each jar.
4) Pack beans in jars, firmly.
5) Pour hot vinegar (brine) into each jar, leaving 1/2 inch  of headspace.
6) Carefully run a non-metallic utensil down the sides of the jars to remove trapped air bubbles.Wipe the jar tops clean and place hot lids on them. Screw the lids and bands on them and place in water bath.
7) Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

3 Month Garden Update

3 Month Garden Update

My oh my has my garden been growing!! My Cherry Tomato plant is over 6 feet tall and growing up my fence.We get about a bowls worth of cherry tomatoes every day. My kids are LOVING it.They are allowed to pick them and eat them anytime they want for a snack. They think it's pretty cool to be able to have a snack anytime they want. They help me pick the tomato fruitworm (caterpillars/inch worms) off every day. There are also a lot of cherry tomatoes, beef steak tomatoes, roma tomatoes growing too. I've been averaging about 1 tomato per day. We had a serious problem with blight in one of my tomato beds and I lost 4 plants from it. I quickly pulled them once I realized what it was and tilled my garden up really good. I also blended up some egg shells and mixed them throughout the soil because I read that could help cure the dirt so I can replant in it. In addition to the blight we deal with these "fruit worms" on a daily basis on all my tomato plants.

My kids enjoy helping me "pick them off" in the mornings and evenings. They won't touch them of course the pull the whole leaf off, but I guess that works!  We are also using an organic tomato pesticide occasionally. Even though it's organic I still don't like the idea of using it. So we continue picking them off one at a time!

I also have several watermelons growing (oh my goodness I never thought a watermelon could be soo small, they're so cute), lemon cucumbers (which you have seen in my past posts), and my bell pepper plants are growing so well.  My largest ones are about 3 ft tall and producing pretty large bell peppers so far. I have some smaller pepper plants in the 10 inch range of height as well. I planted corn about 2 weeks ago and they are already over a foot tall! Fast growing and loving the heat they're getting.

Jess has found 3 green beans on her green bean stalk which surprised me considering it is only about 18 inches tall!! I couldn't believe it had veggies growing on it. I think once this heat dies down some everything will really take off!

Lastly, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and blueberries aren't doing as well, still growing (very slowly) but I think the heat as stunted their growth.

This picture is of my tomato "cemetery" from not picking yesterday. How sad! All those wasted tomatoes that we missed out on eating! My tip for today would be don't forget to pick your harvest every day so you don't miss out!

Anyway, keep following my blog, feel free to comment any questions or comments you might have. Thanks for reading :)

Pickled Lemon Cucumber Slices

How to Make Lemon Cucumber Pickles

What to do with all these cucumbers and lemon cucumbers in my garden? When you grow cucumbers or zucchini it seams like you always have such an abundance  and I never am quite sure what to do with it all... now I know! For my cucumbers I am learning the art of pickling! This is new for me, I have never pickled anything before. I got this recipe from my Aunt Roxy who is also an avid canner and am so excited to share it with you. I made one batch of these in the fridge (only requires 3 days of waiting before I can enjoy them!) while I canned the rest of them. The beauty of canning cucumbers (pickles) is you don't need the pressure canner. This project only requires a water bath and 10 minutes of processing. Talk about a quick and easy canning project!


Makes 2 pint jars
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds Lemon  Cucumbers
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
2 teaspoons dill seed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, (optional)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons pickling salt or kosher salt

Equipment
Chefs knife
Cutting board
2 wide-mouth pint jars with lids
Large pot for canning

Instructions
1) Prepare the jars: If you are planning to can your pickles for long-term storage, bring a large pot of water to a boil and sterilize the jars and their lids. If you are planning to make refrigerator pickles, simply washing the jars and lids is fine.

2) Prepare the cucumbers: Wash and dry the cucumbers. Trim away the blossom end of the cucumber, which contains enzymes that can lead to limp pickles. Leave the pickles whole, cut them into spears, or slice them into coins, as preferred.

3) Add the spices to the jars: Divide the garlic, dill seed, and red pepper flakes (if using) between the pint jars: 2 smashed cloves, 1 teaspoon dill seed, and 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes per jar.
Pack the pickles into the jars: Pack the pickles into the jars. Trim the ends if they stand more than 1/2 inch below the top of the jar. Pack them in as tightly as you can without smashing the cucumbers.

4) Bring the pickling brine to a boil: Combine the vinegar, water, and salt in a small sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil. Pour the brine over the pickles, filling each jar to within 1/2-inch of the top. You may not use all the brine.

5) Remove air bubbles: You can use a non metallic utensil to wipe around the inner edges of the jar, or gently tap the jars against the counter a few times to remove all the air bubbles. Top off with more pickling brine if necessary.

6) Tighten the lids: Place the lids over the jars and screw on the rings until tight.

Processing
1) Place jars into canner with water JUST to the necks of the jars.

2) Bring water to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes **Don't forget to adjust cook time for your altitude or if using a different size jar**

3) Remove jars, set on a dish towel on the kitchen counter, cover with another dish towel & let cool. Check for seal (indented lid), label jars or lids, store in cool dark cellar or cupboard.

4) You can eat them right away, but they taste best after a couple weeks of absorbing flavor!

NOTES: When washing/scrubbing cukes, sort them into piles by size. This really helps make your jars look nicer, if you have uniform sizes (and this impresses the judges too!). And makes for easier packing, too.

Lemon Cucumbers in my Garden

I (accidentally) started growing an heirloom called Lemon Cucumbers this spring. Some of my seeds got mixed up but I planted pickling cucumbers because I wanted to make my own pickles. Well, that was my intention anyway. In the last month, my cucumber plants have been going wild with flowers and these yellow tennis balls have been emerging. I kept waiting, thinking that they will eventually turn green and elongate, so I left them on the vine.

Week after week, they got bigger and bigger but never really turned green. Clearly, these were not regular cucumber.  I posted pictures around asking if anyone knew what kind of cucumbers they were. Maybe squash? 

Now, they have been identified as lemon cucumbers. So after doing some research I discovered a few things.  I let my little lemon cucumbers stay on the vine too long, they don't taste anything like lemon-not even a hint, and I CAN still pickle them! You can guess what blog will be next right...pickled lemon cucumbers! 

Pressure Canning Pulled Pork

When it comes to Pulled Pork, look for either Pork  Shoulder or Pork Butt (pork butt is actually part of the shoulder, not the butt. The actual butt of the pig is the "ham"). I had to read a lot about pork before committing to buy because I always used to buy center cut pork chops and cook them/shred them. That was really expensive and a lot of work lol. Now I opt for the pork shoulder/pork butt. Bone-in or boneless will work, whichever you prefer. Bone-in shoulders take a little longer to cook, but can make the meat more flavorful and succulent. Boneless cuts can be sliced into smaller chunks for easier handling and quicker cooking. I've done both many times and find bone-in or boneless fairly interchangeable. I usually go for 4 to 6 pounds boneless or 4 to 7 pounds bone-in. This will give you about 10 cups of shredded meat, which is enough to feed a crowd or plenty for a week's worth of meals. Cooking a pork shoulder takes quite a lot of time, so I tend to roast as much as I can at once and pressure can what I don't think I'll use right away for future meals.

Making all that BBQ sauce a couple weeks ago, I thought it'd be a perfect time to make some Pulled Pork Sandwiches. Of  course, I can't just make a small portion I need to make enough to can some! Pulled pork is a summer favorite for most down here in the south, and I technically lie in the south so that is fun to say! Now, I will be able to whip it out with little preparation and have amazing pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce. A dish that would normally take all day to cook you can have ready in minutes after canning it!

Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Yield: 4 pints 1 quart
Ingredients
4lbs Pork Shoulder or Pork Butt
1 Onion sliced
BBQ sauce
**optional** 2 tbls Dry Rub Spice (mixture from BBQ sauce recipe)

(Cooking the Pork)
1) Place the Onion in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top it with your pork and if desired a couple tablespoons of the "Dry Rub Spice Mix" (I gave in my BBQ sauce recipe last week).

2) Turn the crock pot on medium and cook the pork shoulder all day.

3) Once the pork is tender enough, take a fork and start pulling it apart.

4) Add more BBQ sauce until you get the consistency you want for your pulled pork. I mixed my sauce in with the pulled pork but it still seemed a little dry for canning and I wanted my pork to be completely submerged in the sauce so I added some water until I got the consistency I was looking for (I added about 1 cup of water, broth would also work).

5) Bring your meat/sauce mixture to a simmer. You want it to be a little saucy because the canning process absorbs a lot of the liquid.

(Pressure canning process)
1) Prepare your canning jars by boiling them in water and put the lids in simmering water to sterilize and kept them all hot until your ready for them.
2) Ladle the Pulled Pork into your jars, and wipe the rims clean (I always use distilled white vinegar to get all the bacteria and extra grease off before lidding them).
3) Remove the lids from the simmering water using your handy dandy magnetic lid wand, tightening them onto the jars to a fingertip tightness.
4) Processed the pint jars in my pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 70 minutes (90 minutes for quart jars). **Don't forget to adjust cook pressure according to your elevation**.
5) After processing, I removed the canner from the heat and let it cool, and allowing the pressure to drop naturally. 
6)  Removed the jars from the canner using your handy dandy jar lifter and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool. I love to sit and listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar.

Real BBQ anytime you want it :)