Turn your garden harvest into a peck of pickled peppers

 It's September, and I still haven't harvested a single red tomato. The beets are still grape-size and, so far, my four plants have produced only two zucchinis. But the green beans? They're suddenly coming in faster than I can eat them.

I've blanched and frozen several bags for fall and winter, and, in the interest of variety, have just pickled a batch.

As a lifelong gardener, I'm no longer surprised by annual harvest fluctuations. A few years back, my plants yielded a single bean, which I comically steamed, salted and cut four ways to split with my family. It was delicious, but not worthy of pickling, unfortunately.

This year, however, my tomato deficiency is offset by an embarrassment of bean riches.

A jar of green beans soaking in homemade pickling brine.

Since I don't have the patience for pressure canning, I do all my pickling the quick-and-easy way -- in the refrigerator. (Besides pickling, I preserve most of my herbs and vegetables by drying or freezing them.)

The easiest way to do this is to reuse the brining liquid from a just-finished jar of purchased pickles. I simply wash and pat-dry the beans, then place them in the pickle "juice" and return the jar to the refrigerator.

With this shortcut, you'll be enjoying tasty pickled green beans in just 24 hours, and they'll remain crispy for up to a month. You can even use the brine one more time to make a second batch.

There are plenty of other uses for the tasty liquid, too, such as in pickle martinis, but I digress.

Freshly picked green beans in a jar of reused pickle brine. Photos: AP

If you don't have leftover brine, it's easy to make your own: Boil 1 1/2 cups each of water and distilled white vinegar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of pickling spices in a nonreactive pot (stainless steel is best). Sugar is optional; I don't use it, but feel free to include some if you like sweeter pickles. Turn off the heat when the salt and sugar, if using, are fully dissolved.

Next, add 5-10 sprigs of dill, 3-4 crushed garlic cloves and a pinch of red pepper (if desired) to a clean, sterilized, quart-sized Mason jar.

Pack the jar tightly with the whole, trimmed beans, then pour in the vinegar solution, leaving 1 inch of headspace at the top of the jar. Allow it to cool at room temperature before covering and refrigerating.

Fresh-made brine can be reused twice, for a total of three batches.

Of course, if you're a purist, these methods can also be used to make refrigerator-pickled cucumbers: Slice cucumbers into wedges or quarter-inch rounds, or use whole pickling cucumbers, such as kirbys, and proceed as above (if using whole cukes, cut off their blossom ends but leave their stem ends intact).

If you're feeling adventurous, you can pickle all sorts of other fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator.

Try it with asparagus, beets, end-of-season green tomatoes (cut into wedges), or sweet or hot peppers, as Peter Piper did.

You can even pickle cherries, peach slices and watermelon rinds, a southern delicacy that recently made a surprisingly tasty snack for this northerner. Keep the salt, vinegar and water, but feel free to adjust the seasonings and spices as you wish.

For instance, I include sugar when pickling fruit and swap the pickling spices for ginger, cinnamon or cloves.

All sorts of pickle-inspired foods - from chips to gummy candies - have been gaining popularity lately, but there's nothing better than the real thing. And with so many flavor variations to experiment with, all you have to do is follow your taste buds.

 Associated Press