Fermented Green Bean Pickles

This Sunday at at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of pastured chicken, lamb, and pork cuts from Fair Valley Farm and beautiful fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company. Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings:  

Fresh
lots of corn (make savory corn pudding)
watermelon, cantaloupes, peaches, and Italian prune plums (nice waffle toppings)
Gravenstein apples, Asian pears and bartlett pears from SLO farm (put on pizza)
lots of tomatoes, including cherries and flats of romas (restock your sauce supply)
sweet and hot peppers of all kinds (use in bean pickles)
green and yellow beans (make bean pickles)
eggplants and broccoli (try these grilled eggplant dips)
fennel, cucumbers, and tomatillos (make pan roasted tomatillo salsa) 
potatoes, baby beets, kohlrabi, carrots, and daikon radish (make banh mi)
crookneck squash, summer squash, and zucchini (bake a gratin)
cabbage (green, red, savoy) (great in slow cooker soup)
radicchio, chard, kale, lettuce, including bagged mix (make kale Salade Lyonnaise)
garlic and fresh herbs (basil, oregano, sage, thyme) and home-grown lemon grass

Preserves, Beans, and Grains
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles, Chili Dill Pickles, Bread 'N Butter Pickles, Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, and Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce and Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce
Assorted beans and grains from Camas Country Mill

Having experimented with fermenting cabbage, wheat, and cream, I thought I'd try my hand at some fermented green bean pickles. I followed the general guidelines for fermented yard-long beans from Liana Krissoff's Canning for a New Generation, but added some of Sweetwater Farm's cherry bomb peppers, garlic, and chives for flavoring.  

Just as with these other ferments, I was amazed at how easily I could harness the Lactobacillus workhorses of the microbial world. Within a week of resting on my counter, quietly bubbling away, my beans had transformed into tart and sour pickles, infused with spiciness and the sharp flavors of garlic and chives, the perfect accompaniment for a corn, summer squash and millet succotash, a green salad, and my latest loaf of sourdough bread.

Fermented Green Bean Pickles

adapted from Canning for a New Generation, makes one quart

8 ounces green beans
6 cloves garlic
2 or 3 spicy peppers, such as cherry bombs
12 chives
1/4 cup pure kosher salt
8 cups water

Wipe off the beans, trim the stem ends, and cut into 1 inch lengths. Peel and coarsely chop the garlic. Stem, seed, and chop the peppers. Chop the chives into 1 inch lengths. Place all the ingredients into a clean quart-sized mason jar, preferably wide mouthed. Combine the salt and water in a large pitcher and stir until the salt is dissolved. Pour the brine over the beans in the mason jar, and place the jar in a bowl. Pour the remaining brine into a gallon-sized resealable bag, seal, and place the bag on top of the beans in the jar such that the bag covers the jar mouth and submerges the beans into their brine. Cover the container with a clean towel and let the beans ferment at room temperature. After a couple of days, you should see the fermentation process happening as small bubbles form along the beans. Skim off any scum that forms on the surface. Taste the beans and continue fermenting until they are the desired sourness, about one week. Seal and refrigerate in the brine for several weeks, or drain and freeze in freezer bags for up to 6 months.

Market Start Date and Radish Ideas

Mark your calendars! June 1st, four Sundays from today, will be the start of the fifth season of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market. Sweet Water Farm will be back with their wide selection of fruits, vegetables, and preserves, Fair Valley Farm will have their pastured chickens, as well as pork and lamb cuts, and Tiger Lily Art Company will be offering gorgeous fresh cut flowers. The market will be open 10 AM-2 PM on Sundays in the Sun Automotive lot on the corner of Agate Street and 19th Avenue. In anticipation of the spring vegetables you can look forward to at the market, here are some ideas for the often overlooked and under appreciated radish. When young and fresh, these are delicious crunchy treats dipped in butter and sprinkled with fancy sea salt.

They are also wonderful sautéed in butter and tossed with fresh mint.

And they make a pretty pink pickle, a perfect garnish for Cinco de Mayo tacos. See you at the market in a month!

Quick Pickled Radishes

makes 1 pint

1 bunch radishes
1/2 cup cider or white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt

Combine the brine ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Allow to cool. Trim the tops and tails from the radishes and wash them well. Slice them into 1/4 inch slices and then cut these disks into strips. Pack the radish pieces into a clean pint jar. Once the brine has cooled, pour over the radishes so that they are all submerged. Seal and refrigerate. You can serve within 30 minutes, and they will last for a week or two refrigerated.

Grain Salad in a Jar

Here's a convenient lunch idea, composed of leftovers from the previous post on pickled chard stems. Into a pint jar I packed farro, chopped carrots, pickled chard stems and almonds, and drizzled over some olive oil (the pickles brought along some vinegar to meld into a vinaigrette during the day). On top I gently layered some greens so that when I inverted the contents into a bowl at lunch, I had a lovely composed salad.

Grain Salad in a Jar

1 pint jar per person

2/3 cup cooked grain (farro, barley, quinoa)
1/3 cup chopped crunchy vegetables (carrots, peppers, cucumbers)
1/4 cup chopped pickled vegetables (chard stems, fennel bulb, etc.)
1/4 cup protein such as nuts, diced cheese, canned tuna in olive oil, hard boiled egg
1 Tbsp oil oil (or oil from tinned fish)
1/2 cup greens

In a pint mason jar layer grains, vegetables, pickles, and protein, and drizzle over olive oil. Layer on greens and close the jar. To serve, invert the jar into a bowl.

Pickled Chard Stems

A thick, grey flog has enveloped Eugene for days, sapping the color from our daily lives. Under these gloomy conditions, the bright red stems of this Swiss chard from Sweetwater Farm seemed worth preserving.

I blanched them quickly and soaked them in a brine similar to these refrigerator pickles. The sharp flavor of these chard stems, with a hint of anise, brightened up our foggy day feast of a beef and rio zape bean chili, farro from Lonesome Whistle Farm, roasted delicate squash, and sautéed chard.

Pickled Chard Stems
makes 1 pint

1 bunch chard
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Set a pot of salt water to boil. Rinse the chard leaves, trim off the very tips of the stems, and then cut the stems from the leaves, which you should reserve for another use. Cut into 2 inch lengths. When the water is boiling, blanch the chard stems for 1 minute, then drain and rinse under cold water. Transfer to a clean pint jar.

2. Prepare the brine by combining the remaining ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Pour the brine into the jar to cover the chard stems. Let marinate for an hour. Serve or refrigerate. Use in a couple of weeks.

Chicken Liver Pate and Sunchoke Pickles

Chicken liver pate is a dish I remember fondly from my childhood as a fancy indulgence, rich and boozy, prepared for special occasions. Then at some point the combined threats of concentrated environmental toxins and artery-clogging cholesterol seemed to banish this dish from our family table and restaurant menus. Fair Valley Farm's conscientious animal husbandry alleviates the first concern, and  the cholesterol hysteria has wained a bit. So I decided to try my hand at this dish with a pound of Fair Valley Farm's chicken livers. However, the three sticks of butter that Jacque Pepin's classic French recipe would require did give me pause. After a little searching around, I came across this Tuscan chicken liver pate from food52 contributor gluttonforlife, flavored with capers, anchovies, lemon zest and Parmesan. The resulting spread was as rich and creamy as I remembered, and a splash of sherry rounded out the flavor. 

The final touch, a stroke of genius I would say, was to layer on some sunchoke pickles. These had been made in a frenzy with Open Oak Farm tubers that needed my attention before I left on a short trip. Sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) resemble potatoes in appearance, but have a distinctive sweet, almost citrus flavor, and bright crunch due to their high inulin content instead of potatoes' starch. A less accessible complex sugar (appropriate for diabetics), inulin is considered a "prebiotic" that promotes healthy gut bacteria. This is all well and good, but a pile of gnarly sunchokes can be intimidating.

Confronted with these unfamiliar vegetables, I turned, as I often do in such situations, to The Victory Garden Cookbook by Marian Morash. Her last entry for Jerusalem artichokes was a pickle recipe, which called for a day of soaking in salty water, before being plunged in a vinegary bath. While picked fennel was a revelation last summer, these sunchokes are my new favorite. Their distinctive flavor shines through the vinegar and they made the perfect complement to the creamy pate slathered on Eugene City Bakery polenta baguette. There may even be a scientific basis for this complementarity, as inulin has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering properties: guilt-free pate sandwiches.

Tuscan Chicken Liver Pate

1 pound (preferably) organic chicken livers
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 large garlic clove, smashed
3 anchovy fillets (or 1 tablespoon anchovy paste), chopped
1 tablespoon capers, minced
4 to 6 sage leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. In a large skillet, melt the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots, garlic, anchovies, capers and sage until the shallots are lightly browned, 6 minutes or so.

2. Season the chicken livers with salt and pepper and add them to the pan. Cook over high heat until browned, then add 1/3 cup of the wine and keep stirring with a wooden spoon, breaking up the livers as they start to cook through. When the wine is absorbed, add the remaining 1/3 cup and repeat the process.

3. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture to a food processor. Process until quite smooth, then add the lemon zest and Parmesan and process again. Taste and add salt or pepper as needed. Serve warm or at room temperature, spread on good bread.

Note 1: for a looser, more mousse-like spread, don't let all the liquid evaporate from the pan. You can always adjust the consistency as you buzz it in the food processor by drizzling in olive oil, water or even wine as you mix in the food processor. I added a splash of sherry during the processing for a nice alcohol note.

Note 2: a pound a chicken liver pate may seem like a lot of a good thing. You can proceed with making this recipe prior to the point of adding the Parmesan cheese, then freeze half of it to finish later.

Sunchoke Pickles 

inspired by The Victory Garden Cookbook

About 20 sunchokes
juice of one lemon

kosher salt for brining

1/2  cup water


3 cups apple cider vinegar


1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp fennel seed


1 tsp mustard seed

1/2  tsp turmeric powder


1/4 teaspoon chili flakes


1. Scrub the sunchokes very well with a vegetable brush and remove any stringy bits. Prepare a bowl of salty cold water with lemon juice for brining the sunchokes, with 1 Tbsp kosher salt for each cup of water (you will need about 4 cups).

2. Slice the sunchokes into thin slices (about 1/8 inch thick) and submerge the slices into the brine. Cover and let soak for about 24 hours. 

3. The next day, prepare the pickling vinegar by combining in a small sauce pan the water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and spcies. Bring to a simmer and cook until the sugar dissolves, about five minutes. 

4. Let the vinegar cool for a moment while you rinse the sunchoke slices and pack them into clean glass jars. 2 pint jars or one quart jar should work. Now pour the vinegar solution over the sunchoke slices and press them down to submerge them. Seal the jars loosely, let them cool and then refrigerate. The pickles will be good to eat in a day and will keep for a few weeks.

Mixed Vegetable Refrigerator Pickles with Fennel

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can expect to find the following offerings from Sweetwater Farm and Fair Valley Farm:

• blueberries and marionberries (bake a cobbler)
• many varieties of greens and cabbage (saute with beans)
• fennel (make pickles, see below)
• carrots, turnips, and potatoes
• broccoli and cauliflower
• zucchini
• peppers and tomatoes (make some fresh salsa for fish tacos)
• fresh herbs, including basil and parsley
• onions and garlic
• tomato sauce and pesto (make fresh pasta)
• pickles and sauerkraut
• homemade jams
• fresh eggs
• pastured chicken (try spatchcocking)
• pork chops, pork roast, ham, ground pork, ground sausage meat, and bacon (treat yourself to a summer BLT)
• lamb (try these gozleme)

Sweetwater Farm's tender, young fennel bulbs are a summer treat. I love fennel raw sliced or grated in salads, roasted, or sautéed in a seafood pasta sauce. This past week I experimented with a new approach of pickling fennel with other summer vegetables, following this recipe from food52, and it was delicious. Along with the fennel, I used a combination of Sweetwater Farm’s zucchini, summer squash, carrots, and cauliflower.

The zucchini and summer squash spears got a salty ice water bath to crisp them up, and then everyone got nestled into their pint jars and doused with a salty sweet vinegar brine flavored with mustard and fennel seeds, turmeric, and red pepper flakes. It was hard to resist eating them right away, but these refrigerator pickles definitely improved with a few days' soak. All of the vegetables were delicious, but my favorite was the fennel with its firm crunch and strong anise flavor asserting itself over the sharp vinegar brine. These are great paired with a sharp cheese as a pre-dinner snack so that you can savor the sunshine a little longer before getting dinner on the table.

Mixed Vegetable Refrigerator Pickles with Fennel

Adapted from AshleyRodriguez at food52


Makes 4 pint jars



4 small zucchini
 or summer squash

1 large or several small carrots


1 fennel bulb (with fronds attached)


4 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered


2 tsp fennel seed


2 tsp mustard seed

1 tsp turmeric powder


½ teaspoon chili flakes


3 tablespoons kosher salt, divided


1 ¼ cup water


2 ½ cups apple cider vinegar


¼ cup sugar

1. Wash and cut the summer squash into spears that fit the height of the jars you are using. Place the spears in a bowl with ice water and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the salt. Let sit for 30 minutes to an hour. This will keep the spears crisp when pickled.

2. If using small carrots, simply scrub and trim their fronts and tips, or for larger ones, peel them and cut them into spears. Wash and slice the fennel in ¼-inch pieces, reserving the fennel fronds. Wash and separate the cauliflower into small florets.

3. In a saucepan combine the spices, 2 Tbsp of salt, sugar, vinegar, and water. Bring to a simmer, and then turn off heat.

4. Place the cut vegetables in 4 clean pint jars. Add a chopped garlic clove and a couple pieces of fennel frond to the jars.

5. Carefully pour the hot brine over the vegetables until submerged. Cover and refrigerate for at least one day. Well sealed refrigerator pickles will keep for 1 month.

Ume Grill's Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles)

The Sun Automotive lot on the corner of 19th and Fairmount has become a real neighborhood food hub. Not only does it house the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market each Sunday (running through October), but every evening, the Ume Grill cart sets up shop to offer delicious terriyake beef skewers and accompanying sides of wasabi spiked cole slaw, crunchy pickles and rice. 

A complete meal includes a dessert of handmade mochi, and even a tea bag for a pot of hot or iced tea.

Ume Grill owners, Helen Nahoopii and Rayton Takata, are committed to using the freshest, high quality ingredients in their food. I asked Helen to contribute a recipe for produce from the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, and she shared this method for preparing cucumber or zucchini pickles with seaweed.

Helen writes: "In Japan, tsukemono or pickles are used as hashi-yasume, literally “chopstick resters”, side dishes that have a totally different texture and flavor. So for instance if you had some grilled meat with a sweet-savory sauce as the main course, you might have some simple, crunchy pickled cucumber slices to go with it. Here is a simple, yet nice side-dish to accompany your next grilled dish!"

Helen was so thoughtful that she even provided me with the seaweed for this recipe, which she purchased at King's Asian Market on West 11th. I tried the recipe with some slender cucumbers from Sweetwater Farm and delicate zucchini from SLO Farm. Both were delicious with a sweetly spicy, mildly briny crunch. 

Tsukemono (Japanese Day Pickle) 

4 servings

2 small thin English cucumbers or small Japanese cucumbers when available, or 4 baby zucchini

1/2 inch kombu (seaweed) cut into thin shreds with kitchen shears

7 T water

3 T rice vinegar

1 T cane or granulated sugar

1/2 tsp crushed chili peppers (adjust according to taste)

Rinse and then peel cucumbers, or simply rinse the zucchini, and cut into quarter lengthwise and then dice into 1/4 inch pieces. Place in bowl and in a measuring cup mix together other ingredients. Pour over diced cucumbers or zucchini. Cover and let sit in refrigerator for up to three hours before serving.

Provided by Ume Grill Owners

Helen Nahoopii and Rayton Takata

Green and Yellow Pickles

My two year old has developed a passion for pickles. If unattended for a few moments, he is likely to be found in the kitchen, having yanked open the refrigerator door with a burst of superhuman, obstreperous strength, and dangling a jar of pickles precariously in his hand. With the lovely cucumber offerings from Lonesome Whistle Farm and SLO Farm, I decided to indulge him with some homemade pickles. I adapted a recipe from Cooking Light for Easy Refrigerator Pickles.

I chopped up a couple cucumbers, one green and one yellow, and layered them with sliced onion. I usually make slices, but this time I made spears, because they showed off the different colored skins better, and I thought they were a good shape for a toddler to grab.

Then I prepared the brine: cider vinegar with sliced garlic, sugar, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, tumeric, and salt, heated together until the sugar dissolves, and poured over the cucumbers. After a day of stewing in the refrigerator, with an occasional stir, they tasted delicious, and they will keep getting more intensely flavored with time.

Refrigerator Pickles

2 large cucumbers, sliced or cut into spears

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

2/3 cup cider vinegar

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp salt

1. Layer cucumber and onion in a non-reactive container that you can easily seal and store in the refrigerator.

2. Heat vinegar, garlic, sugar, and spices in a sauce pan until the sugar dissolves. Pour over cucumbers and stir. Refrigerate. Stir occasionally over the next day. Enjoy for the next four weeks, or as long as they last.