As mentioned previously, my favorite time of year is here – garden season! I’ve started my daily ritual of going out and checking out my [plant] babies (as I call them) to make sure there are no bugs, check that flowers are popping up, and counting each and every fruit/vegetable until I can’t keep them straight. (For the record, there are 11 tomatoes, my jalapenos are kicking the bell peppers butt, my peach tree is finally taking off, and I’m fighting those dang caterpillars/worms that destroy my cabbage….).
Any-ho, as my bush beans and sugar snap peas are over producing (why I planted 8 bush beans is beyond me…) its time for the fun part – figuring out how I am going to store my veggies. Do I want to freeze, can, dehydrate, etc. Unfortunately, I didn’t do enough research to realize that sugar snap peas are best used frozen or dehydrated (lessons learned) however, that is a recommendation and not a requirement.
As for the bush beans go – there is an endless number of recipes that I can use if I want to can. Most recently, I made Balsamic Beans but I believe that my next adventure will be Dilly Beans (also known as Pickled Green Beans).
Last night we picked our first haul from the garden – bush beans (for the record – that is a massive bowl in the picture below). Today’s project is tackling the sugar snap peas! [Tip – the reason why we didn’t pick the snap peas last night is because they are best used immediately. Since we didn’t pick anything until almost 9pm we decided it was best to wait a day to pick so that they can immediately be blanched, dried, and then frozen.]
Now, if only my million cucumber flowers (okay, an exaggeration) start producing, I can start my pickles that I’ve been waiting entirely too long to make.
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