These past weeks have been busier than usual for all of
us. Anything that is a vining plant has
grown particularly well this year, as has been evidenced by our green bean
harvest. After doing 100 plus quarts of
them, I am having nightmares about green beans!
I ordered a pressure canner from Walmart, fully expecting it to be here
in time so that I could run 2 pressure canners at once – it has yet to arrive,
3 weeks later – but that is a rant all into itself. After many late nights, I am happy to say
that I am done with the green beans this year, and our families will have many
tasty meals to look forward to this winter!
What you need to can green beans:
20+ pounds of green beans
1 package of bacon, slice each piece into four
Canning salt
Water
Pressure cooker/canner
Mason jars –qts or pints
Step one: snap the ends off of your beans and snap them into
thirds.
Step two: Wash the beans, changing the water at least twice,
more if you have treated them.
Step three: Place beans and bacon into large pot, cover with
water and bring to a boil. Once boiling,
turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.
Step four: Fill clean jars with beans and a bit of
bacon. Cover with water, leaving ¼ inch
of headspace. Add 1 teaspoon canning
salt to each jar.
Step five: use a butter knife around inside of jar to remove
any bubbles. Place lids and rings on jar
and hand tighten.
Step 6: Follow canner directions as to amount of water, and
for how to make sure the lid is secure.
With my canner, the relieve valve remains off. Once there is steam escaping, I wait 10
minutes before replacing the valve. Once
the valve begins to shake vigorously, I turn the heat down and cook for 25
minutes. FOLLOW YOUR CANNER’S DIRECTIONS
TO THE T!!! Do NOT open the canner for
at least 30 minutes, and then open with the lid pointing away from you. Do not try to hurry this process along.
NOTE: My Grandma’s generation often canned green beans in a
plain water bath canner. This is no
longer considered safe, unless you want botcillism, of course. They would boil the beans for 3 hours, and
the end result was often mushy, lacked nutrients and was risky.
