Willy Nilly Dilly Beans

After cooking a "mess" of Blue Lake green beans from my garden for several meals, I decided to pickle the remaining crop.  (Do people outside of the South know "mess"?)  These questions came up:  Should I allow bean tips to stick up into the top of the jar into the head space?  and what kind of spices should I use?  I consulted a few recipes and decided on dill seed, garlic clove, peppercorn, and red pepper flakes for seasoning.  Then...Walmart was out of dill seed!  (Oh goodness, what I would give for a Publix out here in the country!)  Well, I bought Ball Pickling Spices and used 1/2 the recommended amount, plus the pepper flakes, garlic and dill seed I later located.  Here are the results:  The beans are highly edible, but smell a little like Bread and Butter pickles due to the Ball spices.  Next time I'll go purely dill.  Also, the issue with the beans in the head space and possible not covered in vinegar was not a problem, as the beans in my jar floated to the top and there is a space at the bottom of each jar.  (See photo.)  I'd like to eliminate some of that space next time.   Also, I may cut down the salt a little.  Next, I'd like to pickle okra and then green tomatoes, but school starts in two weeks, so we'll see!

Indoor Gardens

My daughter, Grace, and I made terrariums today.  It seems they are trendy again; it took some thirty years, but the ones we saw at the garden shop at our Botanical Gardens reminded me of the one I made at her age.  She wanted one for her apartment, so we made it our summer project.  We love them!

Berries from Canaan

This morning I walked to a patch of blackberries beside an old logging road that cuts across our farm.  My faithful dog, Sammy, and the new puppy, June, kept the snakes at bay while I picked a cupful of blackberries from the Land of Canaan.  They are twice the size of the rest of the berries scattered around the woods and driveway.  An older friend told me that the big ones are blackberries and the small ones are "dewberries."  I don't know if this is right--but I prefer to think of them as from the Land of Milk and Honey that I remember from the Bible story books my Mom read to me at bedtime.  There was a picture of two men carrying a huge bunch of grapes, using a pole across their shoulders, as they returned from checking out the land God had promised their people.  Picking these giant berries feels like that.

Peach Tomato

This is a Wapsipinicon Peach tomato from Baker Seed Co.  I wish I had taken a photo before slicing it.  It really does have a slightly peachy taste.  (The seeds were two or three years old from my seed stash.)