Canning green beans

Garden update:
English peas are finished. We will be pulling them up this week and planting pole beans in their place.
Broccoli is finished. Remaining florets are being cut and the plants will be pulled. The excess rain we've had is rotting the plants that have already had the crowns cut - their side shoots are not producing well. Too much rain.
Yellow squash is producing well. Should be ready to start picking in a couple of days.
Loads of green tomatoes on the vine. Will be ripening soon.
Loads of bell peppers on the plants, almost big enough to pick.
Blueberries and strawberries are ripe.
Potatoes are almost ready. We may begin digging some in the beginning of July, but will wait for the bulk of them when the tops of the potato plants have turned completely brown.

This weekend I found myself covered up in green beans - about 20 pounds. For reference, a bushel of green beans is 30 pounds, so I had 2/3 of a bushel.

I spent Sunday evening canning beans.

Canning green beans is easy. They are a low acid food, so they MUST be canned in a pressure canner. If you don't have a pressure canner, then the only other safe ways to preserve them would be to either freeze them or dehydrate them.

CANNING GREEN BEANS

Before you start to can your green beans, it's a good idea to figure out what kind of yield you should expect. Here is a good rule of thumb:

It takes about 2 pounds of beans to make 1 quart if you use the hot pack method.
It takes about 1 1/2 pounds of beans to make 1 quart if you use the raw pack method.
(Halve those numbers if you're canning pints)

Weigh your beans now (or get a good estimate) and check your jars to make sure you have enough jars for your beans. Once you've started the cooking process, it's not a good time to have to run for the store to get more jars. This time of year, there's a chance that the store might not have any!

Wash and rinse green beans in cold water. Snap off the ends of the beans and remove any strings. Break beans into 1-2 inch pieces - whatever your preference. I always cut my beans with kitchen shears instead of just breaking them by hand. It makes a cleaner cut and reduces the likelihood of extra stringy pieces on the beans. Plus, it gives the beans a more uniform appearance. (If you plan to enter any of your canned foods in your local county fair, this is important. The "prettier" and more uniform your food looks, the better chance you have of winning.)

Prepare your pressure canner for canning, per manufacturer's instructions. Get the water hot.

Wash and rinse jars, lids and rings. Keep jars hot. Simmer lids in water - DO NOT BOIL.

When canning green beans, you have 2 options of packing the beans into the jars: hot pack and raw pack.

Raw pack - tightly pack uncooked beans into jars and cover with boiling water. Leave 1 inch headspace.

Hot pack - Put beans into a big pot of boiling water and boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Pack beans into jars and cover with hot cooking liquid. Leave 1 inch headspace.

Either method will work - it's merely a matter of personal preference. I prefer to use the hot pack method. With hot pack, more beans will fit into the jars (don't worry, they don't get mushy - they've only been blanched for 5 minutes) and the food won't float to the top. With raw pack, no matter how tightly you pack the jars, the food invariably floats to the top and you end up with an inch or so of nothing but liquid at the bottom, which is just wasted space in the jar.

With either method, after you have filled the jars, run a spatula or other non-metallic object into the jar and gently press against the food to remove any bubbles.

You may add canning salt to your jars of green beans. This is totally optional and is only for flavor. The salt does nothing to aid in the preservation process.

If you want to add salt, you may add:
1/2 tsp. salt per pint jar
1 tsp. salt per quart jar

I use canning salt. It has no anti-caking additives or iodine in it, which can make your canning liquid cloudy.

Wipe rim and threads of the jars with a clean, damp cloth. Place on lids and screw down bands to finger-resistance.

Place jars in pressure canner and process.

Recommended process time for Green Beans in a DIAL-GAUGE pressure canner
Pints: 20 minutes at 11 PSI (or adjusted for altitude above 1000 ft.)
Quarts: 25 minutes at 11 PSI (or adjusted for altitude above 1000 ft.)

Recommended process time for Green Beans in a WEIGHTED-GAUGE pressure canner
Pints: 20 minutes at 10 PSI (or adjusted for altitude above 1000 ft.)
Quarts: 25 minutes at 10 PSI (or adjusted for altitude above 1000 ft.)

After processing, remove your jars to cool and leave them undisturbed for at least 12 hours. If you move them before that time, you could cause the seal to fail, thus spoiling the food.

If any of your jars fail to seal, you can either store the jars in the fridge and consume the food within the next couple of days, or pack into a new, clean jar and reprocess.

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