Dilly Beans

This is the recipe for the pickled beans we invited CSA member to make with us a couple weeks ago.  A number of people have asked for the recipe we use, so we decided to just post it here.  It is from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, the Bible of canning and freezing.  (I bought my copy at the hardware store next to the canning jars.)

 

Yield: about 4 pints or 2 quarts.  (We generally pack a bunch of jars with beans first, and then double or triple the brine recipe.)

2 pounds green and/or yellow beans
1/4 cup canning salt
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp cayenne pepper
4 cloves garlic
4 heads dill 

Trim ends off beans. Combine salt, vinegar, and water in large saucepan. Bring mixture to boil. Pack beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Add 1/4-tsp cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic and 1 head dill to each pint jar.  (For quart jars add 1/2-tsp cayenne, 2 cloves garlic, and 2 heads of dill).  Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece lids (according to regular canning procedures).  Process pints and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.*

*Last year we put the jars in for 10 minutes total, and our beans were not wrinkly.  This year, we read the fine print again and it said to put in the jars and let the water come back to a boil, and THEN start the timer for 10 minutes.  This year we DO have wrinkly dilly beans.  How will they taste?  We don’t know, because we usually treat them like cucumber pickles and wait about 6 weeks before opening them to taste.  Obviously nobody got sick on our “undercooked” beans last year, but generally in canning one should try to follow the instructions for fear of botulism.

BLT heaven

Wow!   …what else can we say? A great way to be present with the summer before it’s gone. We suggest adding some basil leaves in addition to the lettuce leaves.  And if you want a local bacon connection, our neighbors have a family hog business (they raise their pigs in Nicollet and Princeton, MN, and they grow corn and soybeans next to us.)  You can find Compart’s Duroc bacon at the Linden Hills Co.op, and I believe also at Lund’s, Byerly’s, and maybe also at Kowalski’s.  It is not organic or pasture-raised, but if you are not buying based on that criteria it is a really great choice.

August 11th, 2008. Week #10.

Current holder of the title “The Best Box Ever.”

In Your Box This Week:
1. Sweet Corn-A dozen for everybody! It will store in your fridge for a few days, but the quicker you eat it the better it will taste! Picked on Sunday evening, with more to come next week unless the raccoons get it first.
2. Tomatoes-small orange Sungold, small red Cherry Roma, medium red Trophy, big German Pink, big Brandywine, medium John Baer. All are heirlooms except Sungold. Stores best uncovered on your counter.
3. Rat Tail Radish-now, don’t judge by the name! This is a variety of radish grown for the seed pod, which tastes like radish roots and can be used raw or cooked/sautéed as you would the root.
4. Green & Yellow Beans-1.5 pounds this week. If you want more for freezing or canning, you can come up and pick however much you want for free. If we pick extra for you, it’s $2/pound.
5. Basil-Picked dry to help it store longer in the fridge, wash before use.
6. Kohlrabi-Eat the leaves like kale, eat the ball raw or cooked.
7. Hot Pepper-the plants are heavy with peppers, so we are picking some green (milder) and leaving some to get red (hotter).
8. Sweet Peppers-yellow, green, and purple. We only grow one kind of hot pepper with a distinctive long skinny shape, so you can always easily tell the sweets from the hots. Enjoy these raw or cooked!
9. Zucchini-Eat them raw, sautéed, baked, fried, etc.
10. Cucumber-a couple of them may be bitter. Take a test bite and then just peel off the skin if it is bitter, the inner part should be fine.
11. Radishes-a surprise crop this week, just a few were ready.
12. Onions-the continued thinnings of our storage onions. We will continue to do this for at least 2 more weeks. These should be refrigerated.
13. Kale-Red Russian & Lacinato/Dinosaur varieties. (These are our only greens this week b/c the lettuce and arugula need more time to re-grow.)
14. Parsley-add freshness to anything by adding this raw or lightly cooked.
15. Garlic Chives-tastes like garlic, but don’t cook it quite as long.
16. Dill Seed-use wherever you want dill flavor. In stir fry, in dip, etc. Store the bag opened on your counter. Or, rub the seeds out of the seed head into a paper bag, & then pour into a spice jar & keep all winter.
17. Broccoli-probably best cooked right now. Try the leaves too!
18. Carrots-Try eating the carrot leaves, but the orange roots will store much longer if you cut off the greens first. (Store both in a plastic bag.)
19. Cuke-nuts-they look like mini-watermelons & taste like a cucumber starburst. These are one of our specialties, rarely grown & almost extinct.
20. Cabbage-Surprise! A second one. Eat raw or cooked.
21. Eggplant-the gourmet & rarely bitter Rosa Bianca variety. Not enough for everybody yet, so we will give out what we have and keep track so it stays equal.

Announcements! Mark your calendars & check back here later for more information:

• We will deliver on Labor Day, Sept. 1st like usual in Minneapolis (7-8:30pm). Anoka members can pick up their shares at Central TV on Tuesday Sept 2nd 11am-6pm. The following week (9/6/08 ) we will switch to Saturday deliveries for the rest of the season.
• The annual farm harvest celebration is set for Sunday, September 14th at 5:30pm. It’s a potluck, we’ll provide grilled meat and a few other things, you bring a dish to share and your own beverage.

August 4th, week #9

Wow. Time got away from me last week. This photo does NOT contain everything in the box, but what was left of my own share a day after delivery last week. On the day of delivery I said it was the best box our CSA has ever delivered. But that honor was then transferred to the week #10 box this week.

 

In Your Box This Week:
1. Tomatoes-small orange Sungold, small red Cherry Roma, medium red Trophy, big German Pink, big Brandywine, medium John Baer. All of our tomatoes are heirlooms except Sungold.
2. Rat Tail Radish-now, don’t judge by the name! This is a variety of radish grown for the seed pod, which tastes like radish roots and can be used raw or cooked/sautéed as you would the root.
3. Green & Yellow Beans-2 pounds this week. If you want more for freezing or canning, you can come up and pick however much you want for free. If we pick extra for you, it’s $2/pound.
4. Basil-All day Sunday it looked like rain, and so I mulched next to the basil with coffee bean chaff (from Peace Coffee in Mpls.) thinking that the rain would wash the leaves clean. Well, it never actually rained, so your basil has coffee bean chaff dust on it. It was picked dry to help it store longer in the fridge, so be sure to wash it before use.
5. Kohlrabi-Eat the leaves like kale, eat the ball raw or cooked.
6. Hot Pepper-the plants are heavy with peppers, so we are picking some green (milder) and leaving some to get red (hotter).
7. Sweet Peppers-yellow, green, and purple. We only grow one kind of hot pepper with a distinctive long skinny shape, so you can always easily tell the sweets from the hots. Enjoy these raw or cooked!
8. Zucchini-Eat them raw, sautéed, baked, fried, etc.
9. Cucumber-a couple of them may be bitter. Take a test bite and then just peel off the skin if it is bitter.
10. Hakurei Turnips-this will be the last of these for a couple weeks. There is one more planting but they are still small. You may notice some brown marks-they are only skin deep and easy to cut off.
11. Green Onions-the continued thinnings of our regular big onions. We will continue to do this for at least 3 more weeks.
12. Lettuce Mix-washed twice, ready for your bowl.
13. Arugula-a spicier green. Also washed twice & ready to eat.
14. Broccoli-probably best cooked right now. Try the leaves too!
15. Beets-the first of the year. Eat the root and leaves, raw or cooked.
16. Cilantro-with the hot weather it is starting to flower and so will taste a bit different than the first harvest of only leaves. The leaves, stems, and flowers are all edible.
17. Carrots-also the first of the year. Try eating the carrot leaves, but the orange roots will store much longer if you cut off the greens first.
18. Cabbage-maybe your only head of the year?? Eat raw or cooked.

Announcements! Mark your calendars & check back later on the website for more information:
+ We will deliver on Labor Day, Sept. 1st like usual in Minneapolis (7-8:30pm). Anoka members can pick up their shares at Central TV on Tuesday Sept 2nd 11am-6pm. The following week we will switch to Saturday deliveries for the rest of the season.
+ The annual farm harvest celebration is set for Sunday, September 14th at 5:30pm.

July 28, 2008. Week #8.

1. Tomatoes!-Just a taste this week, but it’s a start!
2. Rat Tail Radish-now, don’t judge by the name! This is a variety of radish grown for the seed pod, which tastes like radish roots and can be used raw or cooked/sautéed as you would the root. There are a few more radish roots to be harvested in ~3 weeks, but for the most part these seed pods will take over the genre.
3. Green & Yellow Beans-2.5 pounds this week. This will probably be the largest quantity you would receive at one time. If you want more, for freezing or canning, etc., please talk to us.
4. Basil-It was picked dry to help it store longer in the fridge, so be sure to wash it before use.
5. Kohlrabi-this space ship with leaves is the stem of the plant. It has more vitamin C than an orange! You can eat the leaves too, treat them like kale. Eat the round part raw or cooked.
6. Hot Pepper-the plants are heavy with peppers, so we are picking some green (milder) and leaving some to get red (hotter). The variety is the heirloom “Espanola Improved” and is especially good for drying into ristras or flakes.
7. Zucchini-Eat them raw, sautéed, baked, fried, etc.
8. Hakurei Turnips-eat the sweet mild roots & the greens raw or cooked. The leaves will store longer if you cut them off the roots.
9. Radishes-treat them like the turnips, just spicier.
10. Green Onions-the continued thinnings of our regular big onions. We will continue to do this for at least 1 more week.
11. Lettuce Mix-washed twice, ready for your bowl.
12. Broccoli-you can eat the leaves too, steamed they are mild and semi-sweet.
13. Cauliflower-don’t worry, the purple is normal for this variety!

Sept. 1 delivery

We were up in the air about what to do with our delivery schedule over Labor Day weekend.

We’ve decided to go ahead with our usual Monday delivery, thinking that you will probably need to be back in town Monday evening for work on Tuesday anyway.

So, we will continue to deliver on Mondays through September 1st.

Then, we will switch to Saturday deliveries for the rest of September.  Please refer to the “Veggie Schedule” page for more details.

Dilly Bean Making!

Dear CSA members,

You are cordially invited to join us in making Dilly Beans!  Dilly Beans are pickled green beans, most often with dill, garlic, and cayenne pepper.  They are ready to eat about 6 weeks after canning, and they will store unopened on your shelf for a long time (at least a year).

THURSDAY JULY 31st
6:30 pm, at the farm. 
[Leave Minneapolis by 5pm at the latest, because of rush hour.]
-We will gather all necessary ingredients and equipment, you chip in to help cover the costs of the jars, vinegar, etc.
-Eat supper beforehand, or feel free to skip rush hour, arrive a bit earlier, and bring yourself a picnic to eat at the farm.
-We will all work together to can the beans, and then we will divide up what we have and send them home with you!  (Depending on how many people show up, the process will probably take a couple hours.)

RSVP:  REPLY IN A COMMENT, TELL US AT MONDAY’S DELIVERY, or CALL CHRIS IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON JOINING US.  (Depending upon response, carpooling may be an option.)

Zucchini Salad

This is from p. 208 of the Featherstone Farm CSA cookbook, “Tastes from Valley to Bluff”
Serves 6.

[note from Chris: I think it'd be fine to substitute green onions and garlic chives from our farm for this.]

2 medium zucchinis, thinly sliced
3 or 4 radishes, sliced
1/2 medium white onion, chopped
1/3 cup green peppers, coarsely diced
1 cup sliced cauliflower
1 medium tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 to 4 sprigs parsley, diced
1 clove garlic, finely diced and crushed
Several leaves fresh basil, chopped
6 Tablespoons salad oil
1 to 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup vinegar
Salt and Pepper
Onion or Garlic powder
Seasoned Salt
Parmesan Cheese, grated

1. Toss the zucchini, radishes, onion, green peppers, cauliflower, tomato, parsley, garlic, and basil together in a bowl. Sprinkle with the salad oil and lemon juice.

2. Dissolve the sugar and vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat.  Pour over the salad.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, onion or garlic powders, seasoned salt, and grated Parmesan cheese.

3. Chill several hours before serving.

Broiled/Grilled Basil Garlic Bread

My friend Samantha made this for me on the 4th of July– it was fast, easy, and really delicious!

1. Slice up some artisan-type bread.
2. In a small bowl mix together olive oil, some chopped garlic (or garlic chives), and a handful of chopped basil.
3. Spoon oil mixture onto one side of the pieces of bread.
4. Grill or Broil the bread (we broiled ours) until it is toasted to your liking.
5. enjoy!

Arugula Salmon Blueberry Salad

  With sprouted lentils.

  With sliced almonds.

A Quick Meal using up leftover salmon.

1. Start with a layer of Arugula (or salad mix) on a plate or in a bowl
2. Sprinkle with fresh blueberries
3. Crumble on salmon fillet pieces (or substitute tuna?)
4. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar (I like balsamic or apple cider vinegar)
5. Serve with fresh steamed green beans on the side or over the top
6. Optional: add sliced almonds or sprouted lentils

7. Enjoy!

PS it would turn into a gourmet lunch or light supper with the addition of the neighboring grilled bread recipe.