Pickled Green Beans

So I don't mean to brag...but I am gonna :). I make some mean pickled green beans. To me, they have the perfect balance; not too spicy and not overly vinegary. The mustard seeds, cayenne and dill all play really nicely off one another. These babies are PERFECT in a Caesar.

But I am always interested in new ways of preserving things. So when Reesor Farms gave me the challenge of doing some dilly green beans when they placed another order, I jumped at the chance. The past month I have concentrated on filling up my inventory for the farmer's market and the show, that it had been a while since I actually got to go into my OWN kitchen and try a new recipe.

I started off with a gigantic bag of the freshest green beans I could get my hands on. I love when you snap the ends off and you can hear the crunch. These would be perfect for the task at hand.

Then I consulted an old dill pickle recipe my mom passed down to me and pulled the combination of different vinegars from it together. White wine vinegar, distilled vinegar and distilled water. The distilled water helps keep the vegetables nice and crisp and stops them from changing colour as much as regular tap water.

They wanted dill...so I used a combination of dill seed and fresh dill. Pickles are just not pickles in my opinion without a nice fat clove of garlic, so I peeled one and added it to each jar.  Then I boiled the vinegars, added some pickling salt, filled the jars as full as humanly possible with the green beans and added them all together in the jar.

After their allotted time in the hot water bath, I pulled them out and now they rest on my kitchen cupbpard upstairs. I will probably wait at least a couple of weeks for the flavours to develop and then James and I will sit down, crack open a jar and see how they turned out. If they are good, I will share the recipe. If they are less than good, I will share my sorrow. Just looking at the jars, they look pretty fine, but the proof is in the pudding as they say.

The real test will happen even after they get the thumbs up by us, will they get the thumbs up from Reesors Farm. Stay tuned.

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[Micheline]

Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it.