Dylan Beans

Meet Dylan Beans!!!

You can ferment more than just cabbage on top of the fridge!  And after putting another kraut into the crock on Sunday for its month long ferment (which is currently happening in the basement to keep it cooler during the summer heat and prevent the house from smelling like a ripe cabbage patch) I had an itch to turn around a quicker product.  With the fridge overflowing with green beans from the farmers market, the decision on what to make became clear very quickly:  Dilly Beans!
Since my wife bought the beans, I asked if I could use "some" of them to ferment into dilly beans, and she happily agreed.  I left out the part that the "some" i was going to use was everything I could fit into the jar, which turned out to be all bout about 5 beans.  Depending on which one of us you ask, I may or may not have kept to my word.

Anyway, having never made Dilly Beans before, I did some quick internet research and settled on the following:

• all the beans you can fit into a one quart jar
• half a bunch of dill
• 4 cloves of garlic
• a tablespoon of black mustard seeds
• a dried red chili pepper that I had on hand
• some cracked black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tbsp salt stirred into 2 cups water

I combined all the ingredients into a 1 quart jar, jamming the beans in tight so they would stay under the salt water, covered it with a towel to keep any unwanted things out, and then sat on the couch and talked about how much I can't wait to eat them for about an hour too long.

For the label, I decided to go with an musical theme since Dilly Bean sounded like a singers name to me.  I modeled the picture after the first album cover that came to mind, changed Dilly to Dylan, and ended up with Dylan Beans!  Which only seems appropriate given that everyday during fermentation, the beans they are a changin'.

With the high temperatures, and plently of bubbles going on in the jar, the beans should be ready for eating just 6 days after jarring.  And in the world of fermentation, thats fast food!