Joy of Pickling has a brined snap bean with beans, dried peppers, garlic, peppercorns, dill. Her directions are for refrigerator storage, though I don't doubt just as with fermented cabbage or cucumbers that they would be safe to can. I'm guessing it's a quality issue.

I thought the recipe for brined beans was posted previously on Harvest, but if you can't locate it I can re-post.

She lists the following as suitable for brining. Some don't appeal to me personally, but it does demonstrate the wide range of possibilities:

Apples, asparagus, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots (up to 1/2" thick), cauliflower, cucumbers, garlic, lemons and limes, onions, edible pod peas, peppers, shallots, snap beans, tomatoes (half-ripe), watermelon, zucchini.

Carol

Great - I have Joy of Pickling - somewhere, so I'll go find it. Thanks for the reassurance. I have a goodly amount of beans - so will give it a try.

Bejay

There is a fermented mixed fruit that my Ma used to make way back when - likely not considered safe now days - called Ambrosia or something like that. Mixed fruits in a big container/jar on the kitchen counter and served as a dessert if I recall correctly.

Never found the recipe for it but others may be familiar with it and know how to do it with modern standards.

Dave

Dave,
That is a rumpot. Ambrosia is a fruit salad.
Many people still make the rumpot. It is a safe method.

It's also called rumtopf. I think Annie posted a recipe one time. IIRC it came up about the same time as some past fruitcake discussions.

Carol

That's great info! Thanks you two I'll dig it up. Had forgotten all about it until the past holidays.

Dave

My mother-in-law used to make something like that - a mixture of fruit and some type of liquor, to which fresh fruit was added. It gets pretty "heady".

I used brandy the last time. It makes a great topping for ice cream, pound cake, etc. Apparently, the liquor is the "preserver" - hmmm, may be something to that.

I have my beans in the fermenting pot. Couldn't find the book, "Joy of Pickling" but figured I could use a basic brine recipe.

Bejay

Bejay, I posted the recipe on this thread.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Fermented Green Bean Pickles

Dave, here it is with Annie's recipe, clear back in the fall of 2005.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Rumtopf

My grandparents had a gadget for french-slicing green beans. They always had a big crock of them going right next to the kraut. My husband said his mother use to pickle corn in brine. I also have a receipe for making pickled okra that calls for brining whole pods of okra.

I'm glad this came up, because I wanted to post the results of brining the pole beans without first blanching them. As I recall, there was some question about it. Well - I went ahead and brined them. Now I think they would definitely be better if they had been blanched first. They were quite hard and the brining didn't seem to penetrate as well.

I haven't tried another batch yet - but definitely would blanch first next time.

Bejay

Bejay, Have you ever heard of making yeast water from fermented fruit for using to leaven bread with?
I thought, since you had an interest in sourdough and fermenting veggies that this might intrigue you. Basically, you ferment some fruit, vegetables, orange juice or even black tea for about a week. Strain the water and use as the water portion of your dough. I haven't tried it yet. I just read it on The Fresh Loaf yesterday and I'm going to try some with either apples or orange juice. The breads people have made with it look very impressive.

beejay, turnips are plentiful now and there are a couple of fermented turnips recipes in Joy of Pickling.

k

tracydr -

Glad I tuned in - have been really busy with "extras" at home, so between getting my fall/spring garden planted and kitchen work, haven't had much time for my favorite hobby.

Anyway, the fermented juice, etc., sounds interesting. I have recently finished 2 batches of plum wine, which actually turned out pretty good. I sometimes add "other" wines to it, to simulate other brews, so it seems to be giving a "buzz" and isn't all that bad. The plum were frozen from the surplus I had last summer.

After making the wine, I used the squeezings to make a nice plum bread using my zucchini recipe - and added a bit of wine flavoring to spruce it up a bit - and adding a lot of the dried fruit that I had available. Quite good.

I have been working a lot with sour doughs and yesterday went to the Cooking Forum frantically looking for a dinner roll recipe. Some time ago, Annie posted a recipe for her grandma's dinner rolls - I thought I had it somewhere, but had to settle for Cindy's Dinner Rolls - posted by becky ca. They were good but a bit softish - maybe a bit more cooking - as I pulled them early. You know how frantic last minute Thanksgiving serving can be.

All-in-all, the dinner was quite good - especially my pumpkin (i.e. Hubbard squash) pie - that I baked via the "Boston Cooking School" book.

kayskats - thanks for the tip on turnips. Actually, that is one veggie I don't grow. They are not too well received by my family - tho I like them in stews - but garden space is limited so don't grow em.

Must remember to thank becky ca for posting the recipe, that was so timely.

Bejay

I grew some Gilfeather Turnips which are really rutabaga. seeds from fedco. And I found they are one of the most efficient plants for my limited garden. they grew from early spring to the very end past freezes and gave a heavy harvest for the space. the leaves are delicious. really good. and the bulb is great also. I feel I got more pounds of food per square foot than with any other item. They were very easy to grow and did ok with no water in a very hot dry summer this year. amazing plants. The bulbs at the end are huge. really amazingly huge.

Just my opinion and experience.

I grow in zone 5 New England.