FarmCity Food Garden Construction

New to the FarmCity Team: Gardening Expert Extraordinaire

We're excited to welcome Susan Stewart to the FarmCity team!  

With more than thirty years' experience gardening in Vancouver (and before that in the Interior), Sue's available for one-on-one vegetable garden consultations.  Whether you're just about to plant your first-ever lettuce seeds, or are in your tenth year of heirloom tomato heaven, she has a deep hands-on knowledge of Lower Mainland gardening to offer.  We're convinced that you couldn't find a better source of advice, encouragement and general wisdom!

For the summer of 2013, we're also working to put together some tours of Susan's garden - the FarmCity "test" garden, often featured in the photos here on our blog.   Everything from crop rotation, planting times and watering systems - to growing frames, composting and chicken-keeping - there's plenty to see!

And if we're lucky, we'll also convince Sue to give some preserving workshops at the end of the season: dilly beans, salsa, sauerkraut, tomatoes, apple sauce - and more.

Preserving: Dilly Beans!

We've got a bumper crop of beans this year - and one of our all-time favourite preserves is Dilly Beans. Crisp, deeply dill - and if you include the chile pepper, with a real kick at the finish!  Our neighbour's kid loves them so much, we've promised him his own jar for Christmas!

Pack 2 pounds of green beans, standing up, in sterile 500 ml (1 pint) jars.  Be sure to leave 1/4" of air at the top.  

Into each jar, put:

    1 small chile pepper (optional)

    1 clove of garlic

    1 head of fresh dill (or 1-1/2 tbsp dill seed)

Bring to a boil:

    2-1/2 c. water

    2-1/2 c. vinegar

    1/4 c. salt

Pour the resulting liquid over the beans (leave 1/4”).  Seal the jars and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.  This last part is where the food is genuinely preserved, free of bacteria, for safe long-term storage: don't skimp on it!

If you're not sure about this part, there's lots of good information online that can help you decide on what equipment you need, basic sterilizing processes and so on.  One very thorough website that explains everything beginners and veterans alike need to know, is at Hobby Farms.

The beans can be eaten immediately, or of course stored for later consumption.  Dilly Beans also make great gifts, either on their own, or as part of a larger gift basket!