CANNING THE BEANS
As you’ll recall, when I went to the farmer’s market last Saturday, I brought home a mess of green beans. It has been a busy, and tiring, week so I only got to them today.
I was concerned that they were past their prime for canning (and somewhat berated myself for my dawdling). I inspected them carefully as I washed and trimmed them, discarding any rusty areas, etc. As it turned out, I only lost about a pint jar of beans. Even better, the discards really aren’t wasted – the chickens will enjoy them. Additionally, the end trimmings went to the worms, so everything got used. I felt less of a numbskull for delaying the project so long.
I’ve never canned green beans, so this was a new experience for me.
I chose to raw pack my green beans, so it was just a matter of getting the beans in the jars, adding boiling water, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Getting them into the jars was a bit tricky. You wouldn’t think it would be that difficult, but they needed to be as tightly packed as possible. With practice, I’m sure I’ll get better at it.
Add the lids and finger-tight rings and they are ready to go in the canner. Green beans need to be pressure canned.
Green beans don’t take a lot of processing time. Once you get the canner up to temperature and pressure, they just process for 20 minutes. Afterwards, leave the canner alone for at least an hour before opening. Opening it too soon or suddenly releasing the pressure will cause the liquid (and sometimes the product) in the jars to siphon out. We went shopping for chicken feed, and supplies for another project, so we just let the canner set until we came home.
I am still at the experience level that opening the canner is done with a bit of trepidation. While I’ve been doing well with my Nesco Smart Canner I have had some spectacular failures. So, when I unlock and lift the lid, I find myself taking a big breath while thinking, “What am I going to find this time?” Well, this time, it was a …
Keep following along as I update the blog on the other projects I’ve done this past week.
#everybitcountschallenge
Two Chickens Homestead 
green beans are one of my lest favorites. I don’t like them plain…I do like good old-fashioned GB casserole w/mushroom soup and fried onion topping…but…that is so “passe” now, and my daughter HATES it. LOL I do like pickled 4 bean salad and Costco has a 2 jar pack that I buy now and then. Good on you for getting them done! ________________________________
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