Garden Goodies

 My parents stayed with us over the 4th and Dad is always so helpful with garden and yard work.  He is quite the gardener himself so his input is always welcome.  It was ungodly muggy and hot on the 4th and I went out to pick peas for our lunch.  I wasn't even exerting myself.  I sat on a 5 gallon bucket to pick them and had sweat RUNNING off me and my glasses fogged up.  I hate this weather!

 We picked enough for a dish full for lunch.  I sauteed a chopped onion with some cubed ham in butter and then steamed the peas with them in the same pan.  Dee-lish.  We only really had enough for a large serving that one time.  Since then I've picked the fat pea pods as they develop and we just open them and eat them raw.  This year I put in dowels with wire running between them for the peas to climb but they just fell over and we had lumps of pea plants.  Next year I'm going to set up some metal edging fence when I plant so they are held up.  I was recently watching a BBC Tudor special and learned that before the potato was introduced to Europe, they would plant fields of peas and that was their main starch.  I don't know how they survived after our fussy crop of peas!  I love those BBC recreation shows by the way.

 Beans!  Pickled dilly beans!  I have been dying to make these for months!  My childhood best friend was Alitza Rueber and she and I were 4-Hers together.  One year she took dilly beans to the fair.  I can remember eating them for lunch when I'd stay over and I liked them but they were a little too dilly for me.  In the last few years, my dear friend Brenda has been fooling around with canning and she inspired me to start dabbling in it myself.  She makes AWESOME spicy garlicky homemade pickles.  Why couldn't I try the same with green beans for a hot version of dilly beans?  I used this recipe and hastily canned my first single pint of them.  It seemed like a waste firing up the canner for a single pint jar but I was working all the next week and wouldn't otherwise have time.  I picked all the viable beans so they wouldn't develop into monsters by the time I had days off and canned my first jar. 

I had enough for a pint but not enough to completely pack the jar which was OK.  My sister sent me a packet of dill seeds for my birthday and I'm growing it in containers on my deck.  I used the tiniest sprig for my first attempt.  The heat comes from dried red pepper flakes but Brenda uses sliced jalapenos.  The recipe calls for a full teaspoon of pepper flakes per jar but I used 1/2.  It also says to wait a full week, preferably two, before opening the jar.  We opened it 6 days later when the John's were here because I couldn't wait but also because I wanted to test the recipe.

They were delicious and even with half the red pepper flakes, they were still plenty ha-cha-cha!  Dave's parents sent over a bunch of beans from their garden and I picked all the new viable beans in the garden and canned 3 pints before my weekend night shift nap. 

Here is my awesome niece Annika trimming the beans for me.  She helped me with a lot of baking last week while they were here.

I love the view from the top of the jar.  The dill looks like seaweed.

And raspberries!  Beautiful plump ripe raspberries! 

 We've been going out and picking the ripe berries every day and storing them in the freezer.  Let me rephrase that:  I pick and store the berries but Dave EATS them!  ;)  We already have 1 1/2 pints in the freezer and tons more still developing!  The Ramsey County Fair starts on Wednesday and tomorrow I'm taking all my knitting and sewing and Wednesday morning I have to get up early to bake and then take that to the fair.  I am taking those raspberry hand pies in the "other" lot of the pie category.  I'm gambling on that because it will either be a refreshing unique pie entry...or it will be disqualified!  We'll see!