Pickled beans

Toward the end of summer last year I went bean crazy. The farmers market had a wonderful array of green/string beans, wax beans and something they call 'dragon beans'. The dragon beans look like a regular green bean, but they're a variegated purple and green- very pretty!

I decided that I would try my hand at pickling. Now, I've done canning- I make jams, jellies and fruit butters and often give them as holiday gifts. I've also done food drying. It's great to have some celery in the cupboard for when I decide to make a pot roast, but the fresh celery from the fridge is either past its prime or I don't have any, and I love using sun-dried tomatoes, but they can be really expensive. I've found that dehydrator dried tomatoes are just as tasty (if not more so!) and darn near free if the tomatoes are from the garden out back.

But I digress. I learned canning and drying from other people, in person. I supplemented the experiential knowledge with reading, but the basics I learned from another human being. My knowledge of pickling is purely from books. So I was a little nervous taking on such a task.

But I did it. I found a recipe and instructions that looked good, and I got to work. I sterilized the giant jar, prepped and packed the beans, then prepped the brine and poured it on. I then let the jar cool and stuck it in the back of the fridge. Where it stayed because I was afraid to try the beans, for fear of having done something wrong which might lead to food poisoning or something.

Well, it stayed there until this afternoon, anyway. A friend was here when I first made them, and she's asked me several times how they are. Each time I responded, "I don't know. We haven't tried them yet because I keep forgetting they're in there."

She's here visiting again and asked me about them. I finally admitted that I was afraid to try them. She volunteered to be the guinea pig and taste the first one.

They came out pretty well! They're extremely vinegar-y, though. I think I may have added extra vinegar out of paranoia of microbial growth. (Having taken classes on food safety and microbiology, I can get a little weird about these things!) They are not appropriate for a straight snack, but as part of a salad they would be quite tasty.

So now I need to dig out the recipe I used and make them exactly according to the recipe next season. Because I think they'd be excellent as a pickly snack if done without the extra vinegar.