Be bold - pickle your beans!

I love botanical illustrations and I love BEANS! That's good, since we've been getting lots of beans in our share for the past couple of weeks. Beans are a very versatile vegetable, but it can feel overwhelming to cook and eat lots of beans week after week.  (Let's face it; it can also be boring.)

There are certainly lots of bean recipes online, but if you are feeling ambitious, I would like to recommend that you pickle some of your share with this sure-fire recipe for spicy pickled beans: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/62594/crisp-pickled-green-beans/ (Tip: Blanch the beans before you can them!)

A friend and I used this recipe a couple of years ago with yellow beans.  I still have dreams about those pickles!

Pickling and canning is actually a lot easier than it seems, and if you're not feeling the whole hot canning process, (which can be long and kind of intimidating), you can also use that same recipe to make refrigerator pickles.  They won't last as long, but they will still be really tasty and a fun new way to enjoy your beans. (If you make refrigerator pickles, definitely blanch them first.)

Pickling and canning is also more fun as a group activity, so if anyone wants to have a canning or pickling day in Woodlawn, let me know!  Maybe a tomato canning party can be in our collective future....

Enjoy your beans!  (Oh, and I as I just learned from online reading, using kitchen shears to prep the beans instead of a knife and cutting board can be quicker and easier.  Who knew?)

Pictured:
Phaseolus vulgaris L.
Revue horticole, serié 4, vol. 86: (1914)
Courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library & Harvard University Botany Libraries