Green beans galore.... Fridge dilly beans

Despite the problems I have been having with the squash and cucumbers (powdery mildew, and blossom rot), the green beans have been a faithful producer.  We have had steamed green beans, green beans cooked in chicken broth, and sautéed green beans, and I just couldn't bring myself to cook any more for a bit.  Unfortunately, they have been piling up in the fridge, and I had about a pound and a half of beans that I had to do SOMETHING with!!!  

I have seen a lot of recipes for Dilly Beans - a spicy, pickled bean that is canned and then put up for storage, but I haven't ventured into canning, although it is on my bucket list of future gardening plans.  Today I got an idea to search for a dilly bean recipe that could be put in the refrigerator, and I found one at: http://cookcancsa.com/2011/05/27/dilly-beans/.

I have been saving pickle jars for a while.  I have a new obsession with zesty pickles that I have found at Dollar Tree - - oh my they are so good, and for $1, you can't beat them.  I had 6 jars saved in my laundry room, so I figured that it was time to get started. 

 First things first, I had to sort and clean the beans, nipping the ends off with my kitchen shears.  I had dill from my herb garden to use, and Portugal Hot peppers from The Guy's garden to use in place of the hot pepper flakes.  I hope I don't come to regret using them, but I can't seem to find a happy use for these particular peppers.  In salsa they just vanish like they aren't even there, they are too skinny to stuff, and when I slice them and put them on pizza they are so hot I can't stand it.  I may end up pickling them for use later in the year when we don't have fresh peppers, but I'll need to get a water bath canner first.  (Might need to speed up that bucket list...) 

The next thing I had to do was boil the jars and the lids for a bit.  (This is all in the recipe I linked to, of course, but since I took pics, I thought I'd share too.)  The jars came out, filled with hot water, and they sat on the towel while the brine cooked. 

After that, I dumped the water out, added the garlic, dill and peppers, filled the jar with the beans, and added the hot brine. 

They are so pretty once they are filled, and these taller jars allowed me to leave some of the beans long.  I did sort them by size and whether they were straight or curved, kind of OCD, I know, but it allowed me to stuff the jars a little easier.  I also made one that didn't have a hot pepper in them, just so The Pipsqueak and The Garden Diva could try them too.



 Aren't they pretty?  I think so.  I can't wait to eat them, but I have to.  The recipe said to wait at least 24 hours, but the longer you wait the better they are.  We're going to Las Vegas this weekend, so I'm going to let them sit at least until we get back. 

Please note:  Without a water bath canner, you cannot shelve these, even if the lids pop down.  You have to keep them in the refrigerator.  They will keep for a few weeks, but I've been advised that they never last that long! 

Green thumb out!

The Re-vamped herb pot. Maybe it's not a total loss, but I'm not holding my breath!

The herb pot.  It was my garden nemesis!  Everything I planted was doing so well, the garden was exploding, I had tomatoes before anyone I knew, and the next thing I knew, my herb pot decided it was time to bring me back to reality.  Dead.  The two cilantro plants, and, the boxwood basil - - DEAD. 

I made two critical mistakes, which resulted in the murder of three perfectly good herb plants and the waste of about six dollars.  (Now I need to grow about 2 more pounds of tomatoes just to make up for it!  Somehow I don't think that's going to be a problem.) 

My first critical mistake: I had put it against the house for ease of watering, since that's where the hose is, and it was in a huge, and darn heavy pot.  The first problem was location.  Not enough sun. Herbs need a lot of sun. 

So when it started dying, I moved it.  I dragged it across the concrete to the other side of the patio, where it would get full sun.  It was still pretty close to the kitchen, for ease of snipping at dinner time, but I thought it would perk back up.  That was my 2nd mistake.  It was getting hit by the sprinkler.  The sprinkler waters twice a day, and the dirt never got the chance to dry out in between waterings.  Herbs need to dry out a bit - -not all the way, but continuous saturation will kill the more tender ones, like oh, hmmm...  let me think... BASIL AND CILANTRO!!!

 



So I started out with this really cute little herb pot...

  You can see that my herb pot started out fine.  Up against the house, yes, but cute.  I had some nasturtiums that had grown from seed, that I put in the tipped pot.  I knew that I would have to deal with the fact that some of the herbs would get REALLY big and probably overrun the pot, but that's ok...  I was prepared. 

As it turned out, I didn't need to worry, because within a month, my herb pot looked like the photo below.  As I said before, just disregard that little bean plant you see growing in the middle pot in the "dead" photo... it was just temporary housing for that guy. 

It took me a little while to figure out what my mistakes were, it didn't come naturally.  I'm still a novice gardener after all. 





So over the weekend, I spent some time picking out some new herbs and planning a new spot.  I bought another rosemary, a couple of chives, two basil, two oregano and a lemongrass.  Now, I'm not crazy enough to think that all of those are going to fit in that pot, but it's all stuff I wanted, so I figured I would tough it out and find a place for it.  

I read that squash bugs do NOT like chives, so I needed to buy those anyway.  For now they are not in my main garden, but I will move them once I start seeing any hint of those yuckies.  I potted them separately. The lemongrass went into her own pot too, since she's an annual and will get pretty big on her own.  The basil, and the oregano went into the pot to replace the stuff that dies, and I moved the nasturtiums to a higher place since the Trampler likes to stick his big white nose into the pot and eat them.  He's weird, what can I say?  So after a little shopping, a little planning, and a little work - - and of course, a little getting dirty, this is my herb pot 2013 - - take II.


 We'll see how it goes.  It's in a sunny location, and has a friend next to it...  because friends make everything better.  :)  Here's the two of them together.  The 2nd pot has a salvia that my mom and I rescued from her house after her termite tenting, the 2nd rosemary that I bought this weekend, some nasturtiums that I re-potted because they were crowded, and one little sprig of ivy geranium that my mom and I also saved.  The salvia and the geranium were in the pot with Mom's gorgeous friendship plant, but they had a conflict of interest (friendship plant needing shade, salvia and geranium needing sun) so the salvia wasn't faring too well and needed to move or kick the bucket.  I don't take to well to my little leafy friends kicking the bucket, so I found them a new, sunny home. 

Hopefully everyone will be happy and healthy in their new homes.  I'll post an update as soon as I can tell a difference. 

Have a great Monday!
Green thumb out.