If you’ve been reading for a while you know that while I think the USDA is a fine organization, I also live to flaunt their rules when it comes to pickling. Now I’ve taken it upon myself to infect my friend Mia (hi Mia!) with this belief, for which I’m sure I will come to a horrible end.
That said, while the menfolk replaced windows in Mia’s family’s cabin yesterday, she and I filled 27 quart and 8 pint jars with dill pickles and dilly beans. The 20 pounds of organic pickling cukes I got at Snowgoose
and the random assortment of bush beans and pole beans from our garden
were combined with spices, home grown garlic and dill and lots and lots of vinegar to become future pickled delights.
The best part about our system (other than skipping the hot water bath in favor of crisper pickles) was our planning for beer breaks between packing jars and filling them with hot brine. 
It was seriously the most fun I’ve ever had with vinegar. I’m quickly becoming a believer that our mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers had the right way of it when they canned with other women. It’s a LOT more fun pickling outside with someone else than doing it alone in a hot kitchen.
Not to mention that I was able to clear 4 gallons of beans out of my fridge!
I’m interested to see how the non-green-bean varieties (is that the dragon tongue or whatever?) do as pickles. Let us know?
Your dilly beans are SO GOOD. I have some cukes waiting and am hoping for a lot of beans soon so I will try your method.
you just fill the jars with brine and screw on the tops? or is there more to it than that?
I love Dilly Beans. One of the farm stands at my market sells them (for $9 a jar) but I want to make my own this year.
Lauren :: I’ll let you know – it’s a bit experimental, but then I didn’t plant that many of any one kind of bean this year so I can’t make mono-variety dilly beans like I did last year.
Ed :: Basically. You fill them with brine and then slap the lids on as fast as you possibly can. It works best with two people as discovered on Saturday. If a jar fails to seal I either put it in the fridge and eat it first or dump the brine and try again. I did get 3 failed jars (out of 27) last year that we threw away, but I think it’s because I’d over packed them with slicers for sandwiches not because of the method. I haven’t had any problems in previous years.
Whitney :: They’re totally worth the effort. And really, I hot water bathed mine last year (see the recipe) and they still turned out fantastic! So you can go that route if no-processing makes you nervous.
So that’s the secret to crisper pickles. I don’t like them when they are sort of mushy. The outdoor canning is a great idea; and the beer makes it nearly perfect.
Wow, love the photos! That’s quite a pickling event! You are a much better pickle-packer than I am, that’s for sure.
Outdoor canning sounds delightful… and it makes for beautiful light and great photos, too!
Ok, just checking that this is correct… You don’t refrigerate the pickles or beans after you let them cool? Because I have a fridge full of pickles right now from a recipe just like that, and it would be amazing if I didn’t have to keep them in the fridge!
beautiful – looks a perfect day – a perfect shady tree – lovely garden goods – six weeks and counting eh?
usda – they don’t know what they are missing!
Canning with my wife, canning with friends, canning outside. All are much more fun than canning alone in a hot kitchen! Your jars look great!
My canning friends (successful for years with no problems) swear by using hot, sterilized jars, boiling brine, quick sterilized lid-application, no hot water bath, and storing jars @ room temperature. I use jars that I have just run thru the dishwasher and dried on HOT cycle. Excellent for pickles and beets and beans.
I need some advice. On a wild hair I decided to buy a bunch of pickling cucumbers and make pickles. I mad the batch in a food-safe 5 gallon bucket.
Well the pickles are done and now I realize I didn’t consider how to keep them. Any suggestions?