Dilled Green Beans

Once the beans start coming, they don't let up! Of course, you have to keep picking if you want an abundant harvest. Leave a couple of old beans on the plant and it sends the signal that the reproductive work is done, and so will be the harvest.

Sometime around the end of August, I'm sorely tempted to let it go, but then I think of those years when the harvest was sparse and I ran out. So, I forge ahead and pick in the mornings and can and freeze in the afternoons. Autumn will be here soon enough.

I promised the dilly green beans recipe last week, so without further ado, here it is. This one is a low-sodium recipe, for those of you wanting to cut back a bit on the salt. The recipe comes courtesy of Elaine Mir, from the Cooperative Extension Service, Spokane County, Washington.

Low-Sodium Dilled Green Beans

Yield: 7-9 pints

Ingredients:

Green beans, whole - about 4 quarts (that's 4 pounds)
Hot red peppers, crushed - 1/4 tsp. per pint jar
Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp. per pint jar
Dill seed - 1/2 tsp per pint jar
Garlic - 1 clove per pint jar
Vinegar - 5 cups (1 1/4 quarts)
Water - 5 cups (1 1/4 quarts)

Method:

Wash beans thoroughly; drain and cut into lengths to fill pint jars. Pack beans into clean, hot jars; add pepper, mustard seed, dill seed, and garlic.

Combine vinegar and water; heat to boiling. Pour boiling liquid over beans, leaving 1/2 inch head space.

Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes (begin counting processing time after water returns to a boil). Remove from canner, using jar lifter, and place jars on a wire rack or folded towel to cool.

These beans are a nifty accompaniment to pork or lamb roast.

Autumn is Around the Corner

Some ramblings this morning, although if I get lucky, there may be a tie-in to preserving food. We shall see. It's been a very busy summer and I've been on the road and on the water quite a bit. That means pre-scheduling blogs and not replying to my favorite blogs while I'm gone. It's funny that I miss that - checking in on friends is part of my routine and that gets disrupted when I'm out of cell phone range.

The Pacific Northwest Writers Conference in Seattle was great fun, but tiring. It's an intense extended weekend of sessions, meetings with agents and editors, too much food, and re-connecting with old friends. After that it was on to Canada aboard Huckleberry, our trawler and two weeks cruising the Gulf Islands. Princess Louisa Inlet was our final destination and it was incredibly beautiful. Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason, once said that a person could not look at the waterfalls there and the scenery and doubt the existence of God. I believe him. Low clouds obscure the mountaintops that seem to rise all the way to heaven.

Home now and catching up on chores. Weeds grew fantastically in the garden and the first night back we had a frost. Some damage but nothing killed, thank goodness. Yesterday I began harvesting green and purple beans. Today I will freeze the purples and begin canning the greens. Aha! I did find a tie-in! Still many more to pick.

Crookneck squash and cucumbers also coming on and a few cilantro plants as well. Now off to check my friends' blogs and see what they've been up to.

Wednesday I'll give you my recipe for dilled green beans.

The Bookshelf

Gardening, cooking, and home food preserving are natural parts of healthy living. Today’s blog takes a look at some favorite books in these three areas. Some of these suggestions come from my own bookshelf, some from my friends at Twitter (you’ll recognize their distinctive Tweet names), and some from e-mail friends. This week's blogs will bring their favorites to you.

Cooking with Heirlooms: Seasonal Recipes with Heritage-Variety Vegetables and Fruits (Hobby Farm Press) by Karen Keb Acevedo and Carol Boker (Hardcover - Sep 2007).

Karen guest blogged about heirloom tomatoes at The Practical Preserver last week.
She tweets under the name SeasonalWisdom and you can follow her blog at http://www.seasonalwisdom.com/


Allison Vallin recommends More-with-Less by Doris Janzen Longacre. Its subhead reads "recipes and suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources."

Allison tweets as atastefulgarden and you can follow her blog at http://www.atastefulgarden.com/

Two recipe books I recommend are The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition: 250 Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market and The Joy of Jams, Jellies, and Other Sweet Preserves: 200 Classic and Contemporary Recipes Showcasing the Fabulous Flavors of Fresh Fruits (Paperback - April 15, 2009)

Both books are by Linda Ziedrich and published by Harvard Common Press. A pleasant surprise - I found Costco was carrying them. Yea!

More discoveries Wednesday, as we continue stocking The Practical Preserver’s Bookshelf.

Green Beans

There've been some questions about green beans recently, so here's the skinny.

Some varieties of beans are best put by in the freezer, while others handle the canning process quite nicely. Be sure to read the seed catalogue descriptions, when you are planning your garden, so you are not disappointed with the final product. Vesey and Burpee are good about that, and both companies carry varieties that do nicely with short seasons.

Canning does not improve the quality of the food put by. If beans are past their prime, they’re not going to get any better by dumping them in jars and pressure cooking them. You’ll have much better results, if you can beans that are slightly immature.

Because green beans are low-acid, they must be pressure canned to ensure safety. At our elevation (about 3,000 feet),that means 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts at 12 pounds pressure. You do have choices, as to hot or cold pack and whether to salt or not, and that is nice. Salt is only added for taste, not to preserve. You may can beans whole (tip and tail them first) or cut into one inch pieces for convenient additions to soups and stews.

For hot pack, cover beans with boiling water. Boil 5 minutes. Pack loosely in canning jars; add salt, if desired. Cover with boiling cooking liquid. Leave one inch head space.
For cold pack, pack tightly in canning jars; add salt, if desired. Cover with boiling water.
Processing time is the same for both methods.

Remember to vent your canner properly to be sure your foods are safely processed. Air trapped in a pressure canner lowers the temperature inside the canner. To vent a pressure canner, allow steam to escape steadily from the petcock for ten minutes, then close the petcock or put the weighted gauge on the canner.