A few days ago I went over to Vasa Gardens to harvest some end-of-the-season produce to preserve. First off, the farm is GORGEOUS, it's off of a country road east of Cannon Falls where the landscape becomes very hilly. Their driveway is a very steep and long gravel drive and their homestead and farm is located at the top on 50 acres and is completely surrounded by state forest. Oh, and it's fall so the trees are just beautiful right now and the day I visited was an incredibly perfect fall day. The owners are wonderful people and I had a blast talking with them, they are very involved in starting a co-op in Red Wing so we had a lot of information to share with each other. They're farm-hand was also very nice and him and I enjoyed picking vegetables together, he gave me an amaaaazing recipe for Jalepeno Poppers that I will share shortly. Oh, and the owners gave me a great deal on vegetables, I picked 80 lbs of tomatoes, about 50 green and banana peppers, and 50 hot peppers. And it only cost $57, a great deal, they were very generous to me:)
Needless to say, after the apple harvest and now this one, I've been doing A LOT of preserving and cooking this past week. I will be posting recipes for:
-Canning Pasta Sauce
-Canning Salsa
-Slow-roasting Roma Tomatoes
-Jalepeno Poppers wrapped in Bacon (and freezing the poppers)
-Freezing Green Peppers
-Canning Applesauce
-Preserving Banana Peppers
....and I still have about 20 more pounds of tomatoes to put-up!
For now, I've been meaning to post this recipe for awhile because it's SO easy and SO good! This recipe was provided by Joey, one of the SEEDS farmers, and the beautiful photo is from Abby, another SEEDS farmer. We made these spicy dilly beans about a month ago and I know mine were all eaten very quickly...
REFRIGERATOR SPICY DILLY BEANS:
***Makes 1 quart***
-2 cups beans, ends trimmed off
-3 cloves garlic
-2 fresh dill heads
-1/2 tsp mustard seed
-1 fresh hot chili pepper, chopped
-1 Tbsp pickling salt
-1 cup white vinegar
-1 cup water
1) Clean a quart mason jar with hot soapy water.
2) Place dill heads, mustard seed and chili pepper at the bottom of the jar.
3) Place green beans vertically in the jar, place garlic cloves between beans in jar.
4) Mix together pickling salt, vinegar and water in a bowl. Stir until the salt dissolves and then pour mixture over the beans in jar and cover with lid.
5) Place jars in refrigerator and enjoy after 2-3 days.
Needless to say, after the apple harvest and now this one, I've been doing A LOT of preserving and cooking this past week. I will be posting recipes for:
-Canning Pasta Sauce
-Canning Salsa
-Slow-roasting Roma Tomatoes
-Jalepeno Poppers wrapped in Bacon (and freezing the poppers)
-Freezing Green Peppers
-Canning Applesauce
-Preserving Banana Peppers
....and I still have about 20 more pounds of tomatoes to put-up!
For now, I've been meaning to post this recipe for awhile because it's SO easy and SO good! This recipe was provided by Joey, one of the SEEDS farmers, and the beautiful photo is from Abby, another SEEDS farmer. We made these spicy dilly beans about a month ago and I know mine were all eaten very quickly...
REFRIGERATOR SPICY DILLY BEANS:
***Makes 1 quart***
-2 cups beans, ends trimmed off
-3 cloves garlic
-2 fresh dill heads
-1/2 tsp mustard seed
-1 fresh hot chili pepper, chopped
-1 Tbsp pickling salt
-1 cup white vinegar
-1 cup water
1) Clean a quart mason jar with hot soapy water.
2) Place dill heads, mustard seed and chili pepper at the bottom of the jar.
3) Place green beans vertically in the jar, place garlic cloves between beans in jar.
4) Mix together pickling salt, vinegar and water in a bowl. Stir until the salt dissolves and then pour mixture over the beans in jar and cover with lid.
5) Place jars in refrigerator and enjoy after 2-3 days.