Canning Green Beans

(originally posted Aug 19, 09)Here's a post I wrote about canning green beans out of our garden. If you are new to canning, this post will give you a good idea about the process involved in SAFELY home canning vegetables.




Vegetables vary in time and amount of pressure - be sure to consult a canning book to ensure you are using the correct times and weights. Because we live at almost 3000 feet, we need to add 5 minutes of processing time to each canning batch.

A few days ago, I did the first picking of green beans. Got quite the basketful! Got the pressure canner out and got started putting up some jars for the winter....

Sat on the porch, snap snap went the ends....snap snapped the beans....

Put some pint jars into nice hot soapy water. Tossed the snapped beans in the other sink, and gave them a quick cleaning.

 

I used a quart canning jar and put 2 and 1/2 jars of water into the pressure canner.

 

Grabbed the seals and rings I needed out of the pantry. I put some water in the kettle to boil. The seals went into a bowl and I added boiling water, to soften up the seals in preparation for going onto the jars.

 

I raw packed the cleaned beans into the clean and rinsed jars....meanwhile, I boiled a large saucepan of water on the stove. Once it was ready, I added the liquid to each of the canning jars.

 

 

 

I also added a teaspoon of salt to each of the jars (optional).

 

 

Then, I cleaned around the rim of each jar, using a paper towel.

 

 

Put on the seal....added the ring....

 

and put the jars into the canner.

 

 

Locked the top on (read your manual for instructions, this HAS to be done properly)....set it on the propane burner out on the deck and fired the burner up.

A few minutes later, steam started coming out the top vent. At this point, I set the timer for 10 minutes and just let the canner keep venting. Once the timer sounded, I added the weight (15 lbs) and sat back to watch.

A couple of minutes later, the weight started to jiggle. Once that happened, I set the timer for 20 minutes.

Once the timer went, I shut off the burner and left the canner alone. It's important to just let it relieve pressure on its own. It can take awhile, but if you start fiddling with the pressure release valve, in an attempt to hurry along the cool down, it can interrupt the sealing of the jars.

When the canner has cooled down, you can unlock the top, remove the jars to a counter and then Leave Them Alone for 24 hours. Check each seal by doing the tap tap or listening to the pings (when they first come out of the canner)

I ended up with 14 pints, which is pretty good for a first picking!

Oh, once you put the weight on, you may find you need to turn your burner down a bit....every stove/burner is a bit different. You want to be careful to NOT change the amount of heat to much too quick....turning the stove up and down a lot can easily lead to jars not sealing, liquid coming out of jars etc., while in the canner.

It took me a while to get used to the pressure canner....I read and reread the instructions, and kept my eye on the canner pretty closely the first year I used it. But I did get used to it. And now, every year, we put up hundreds of jars of our own home grown, naturally grown veggies!

Sphere: Related Content