Belvedere Farms

Farming for Flavor and Raising our Family on 47 Acres in NE Ohio

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Farmhouse Recipes

Eating like a farmer means making the most of the best you’ve got. These recipes are tried and true – the ones we turn to again and again to put nourishing, nutrient dense, filling, and flavorful meals on the table day after day.

Grandma Helen’s Dill Pickles

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I grew up eating the best dill pickles, but I didn’t know it until I left for college. Try as I might, I could never find a commercial dill pickle as good as Grandma Helen’s. I tried all the brands, all the styles, all the flavors. Nothing ever came close – until I started making my own a few years ago, using my own homegrown cucumbers and Grandma Helen’s very own recipe.

And now, whenever I crack open a jar and take that first pungent sniff, whenever I bite into that crisp, crunchy, garlicky pickle, I’m flooded with childhood memories of eating pickle and cheese sandwiches for lunch and sneaking crunchy pickles from the fridge as a midnight snack.

Grandma was a whiz for scoping out a good deal and knew all the right people on the farms and orchards for miles around her teeny hometown in southern Washington. So when she found a good deal on pickling cukes, she scooped up as many as she could and spent the next several days pickling and canning to beat the band.

She put up oodles and oodles of dill pickles (and peaches and cherries and pears and applesauce and tomato sauce and jam and… well, you get the idea). Then she and Grandad would pack their little Datsun pickup to the gills and haul it all to my family’s ranch in northern British Columbia, Canada and we enjoyed her hard work all winter long.

Grandma Helen’s pickles are the best. Hands down. And every time I put up quarts of pickles, I remember how thoroughly she filled each jar – with love, with memory, with devotion. I’m doing the same, and adding an equal measure of family lore and legacy to boot.

Print Recipe

Grandma Helen's Dill Pickles

Whenever I crack open a jar of these pungent, garlicky, crunchy dill pickles, I'm flooded with childhood memories of Grandma Helen's kitchen. These are hands-down still the best pickles I've ever eaten.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Cooling/Rest Time1 day
Total Time1 day 50 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: canning, dill pickles, pickles
Servings: 8 quarts dill pickles

Equipment

  • Large Roasting Pan
  • Sterile Quart Jars, Bands & Lids
  • Stainless Steel Pot
  • Wide Mouth Funnel
  • Ladle

Ingredients

  • 3 quarts hot water
  • 1 quart vinegar (see notes)
  • 3/4 cup pickling salt (see notes)
  • 8-12 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 8-12 fresh dill heads
  • 1 peck fresh pickling cucumbers

Instructions

  • Clean and sanitize 8 quart jars.
  • Add 1-2 garlic cloves and 1-2 fresh dill heads to each jar (if it’s a large garlic clove, 1 is enough, use 2 if they’re smaller. Same for the dill heads).
  • Pack each jar with fresh pickling cukes. (see notes)
  • Meanwhile, bring the water, vinegar, and salt to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer.
  • Ladle the pickling brine into each jar, removing air bubbles, and leaving a 1/2″ headspace.
  • Add lids and bands and transfer the jars to a large roasting pan with approximately 2″ water in a preheated 350° oven. Leave 1-2″ between each jar. Once all the jars are in the oven, start a timer and let them process for 20 minutes.
  • Remove jars to a towel on the countertop and let cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours.

Notes

  • I’ve known Grandma to use both white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. I like both, but tend to use white vinegar more often. Apple cider vinegar produces a little sharper taste. Experiment with both to see which you prefer.
  • “Pickling salt” is often also called “canning salt.” There’s nothing particularly special about it except that it has no added caking agents (an additive used in many salts to keep it from caking into clumps, but those caking agents make your brine cloudy when you can with them).
  • Grandma always reminds me to pickle cukes as fresh as I can get them – preferably within a couple hours of picking. Wash them well in cold water, scrubbing with a little brush to remove any spines and trim the blossom ends.
  • Packing jars is a bit of an art – choosing just the right size cucumber to fit in just the right spot – I’m still getting the hang of it. They should fit snugly, but not be too tight that the brine cannot penetrate between the cukes; it’s better to pack too loosely than too tightly.
  • I like to use regular mouth quart jars for pickles – the shoulders of the jar help keep the pickles submerged under the brine.
  • I use our turkey roasting pan to process the jars – it’s wide and flat with high sides.  I add about 3 quarts of water or approximately 2″ and add it to the oven as it preheats. When the oven is hot, I add brine to the jars one at a time and add the jar to the pan in the oven. Once all the jars are in, start your processing time.
  • The oven method gets the jars good and hot, destroying any bacteria and sealing the jars as they cool. But it doesn’t cook the cucumbers as intensely as a water bath and so they seem to stay crunchier.
 
To add a little zing:
I like Grandma’s basic version for dill pickles a whole heck of a lot. But I’ve also added to it with great success. Try these combinations for a little more zing in your pickles. Use just one, two, or all three.
Before adding pickles, add the following to each jar:
5-6 peppercorns
1/8 tsp yellow mustard seeds
pinch of crushed red pepper (or more if you like ’em really spicy!)
 
May your pickles be tasty, crunchy, and deliver the perfect amount of pucker. If you use Grandma’s recipe, let me know how it goes! Happy pickling, friends.

 

Flaky Farmhouse Buttermilk Scones

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We have gallons and gallons of fresh milk coming into the kitchen every day and each gallon includes a quart of cream. After just a few days, that makes for A LOT of sweet, rich, golden, pasture-rich goodness. And so we churn butter. Lots of butter.

I usually leave the cream out on the counter to ripen for about an hour before churning, but the other day I got distracted doing a million other things (typical!) and so that when I went to churn it, it was a little too warm and the butter fat fluffed up but didn’t separate from the buttermilk.

I’ve read of this happening – usually in the summer when the cream gets too warm. It is sometimes called “fluffy butter.” Depending on the batch, you may still be able to strain it from the buttermilk, and press it together sort of. But because it’s too soft to wash, it has to be used first (it is the buttermilk that goes bad. Well-washed butter keeps well in the fridge for a long time). Sometimes though, fluffy butter won’t press together at all.  At that point, you can always give it to the pigs (they live for dairy experiments gone wrong!) or use it in a recipe that calls for both butter and buttermilk (which is exactly what it is).

So with our first batch of fluffy butter on our hands, Jordan decided to do a bit of tinkering and created this recipe for buttermilk scones. Since it uses both butter and buttermilk, it’s the perfect use for fluffy butter and they came out light, flaky, and delicious.   For the first test, since we couldn’t weigh them separately, we guessed on the yields of both butter and buttermilk based on our usual yields. But we’ve since made it with regular butter and buttermilk and narrowed down the ratios. They turn out beautifully every time.

Note: we use true buttermilk – the liquid left over from making butter. It is sweet and has the same consistency as milk.  After a few days in the fridge it gets a little more acidic, and just a little thicker. Store-bought buttermilk is decidedly different.  It is much much thicker, for one, so you may need to either add more or add milk to get the liquid consistency right. The dough should just barely come together, and still be loose and flaky – just like a biscuit dough.

Print Recipe

Flaky Farmhouse Buttermilk Scones

Flaky and delicious, these beautiful buttermilk scones come together quickly and are perfectly delectable every single time. Pair with a glass of milk for a true farmhouse breakfast.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Freezer Time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Keyword: breakfast, buttermilk, scones
Servings: 12 scones

Equipment

  • Mixing Bowls
  • Parchment Paper

Ingredients

  • 570 grams flour (approx. 4 3/4 cups)
  • 100 grams sugar (1/2 cup)
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 250 grams butter (1 cup + 1 1/2 Tablesppons)
  • 340 grams buttermilk (approx. 1 1/2 cups)
  • 100 grams nuts, chopped or sliced (1 cup)
  • 120 grams dried fruit (1 cup)

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or two knives) until it resembles coarse oatmeal.
  • Add the buttermilk all at once and mix a few strokes. Add the nuts and dried fruit, and mix just until the dough comes together.
  • Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and split in two. Using well-floured hands, pat and shape (but do not knead) the dough into two round disks, approximately 1.5″ thick. By the time you have the disks shaped, you’ll have used about 600 grams of flour – you want the outside to no longer be sticky. The inside of the dough will still seem wet, but holding its shape.
  • Transfer the disks to a parchment covered baking sheet and freeze for 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the over to 425F. Remove the disks from the freezer, cut into six equal portions (one cut down the middle and cut each half into thirds). Separate them on the baking tray by a few inches (to allow room for rise).
  • Bake 20-28 minutes, until puffed up and golden brown.

Notes

*Use whatever you have to hand to flavor these.  We love almonds & dried cranberries, almonds & dried blueberries, walnuts & dried apples. Experiment by adding almond extract or vanilla, or orange zest. We like to add fresh berries like raspberries and blueberries when they're in season as well.
*After the scones are cut, they can be returned to the freezer, well-wrapped, until later for a quick and easy breakfast. No need to defrost. You’ll just need to add approximately 5 minutes to the bake time.
*Scones are always best warm, fresh out of the oven. We don't feel like they need any garnish, but a dollop of creme fraiche or jam, a swirl of honey, or even maple syrup wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Add a hearty glass of milk for a true farmhouse breakfast.