Over the past week we've been getting more tomatoes than we can eat out of our garden, but we've also been seeing some great results from our beets and beans. I picked six relatively large Chioggia beets, with many more coming along nicely, as well as a mix of yellow beans and Blue Lake pole beans, and a Green Zebra tomato one day.
Since we aren't quite at the stage where we're getting enough beans from the garden for a meal for four people, our mom has been blanching and freezing the beans as we get them. The Blue Lake pole beans are really starting to speed up though. We have one plant that wasn't really producing, but it looks like now it's starting to.
With the Chioggia beets, I decided to try pickling them. I used a recipe from The Art of Preserving, with a few minor changes. The recipe was really basic, because once you've cooked the beets until tender, you make a simple pickling liquid from vinegar, sugar, reserved beet cooking liquid, and spices. The recipe called for apple cider vinegar, but I used plain white vinegar that had the same level of acidity, because that's all I had. The recipe also called for cloves and cardamom pods; I used the cloves, but I didn't use the cardamom because I didn't have any on hand. Instead, I added a sprig of rosemary to each jar. Onion also went into the jars with the beets and pickling liquid. I ended up with four 500 ml jars. The jars have to sit for at least a week before opening, so I have to wait awhile before I can try them.
Megan
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