How to Can Green Beans

This is the first time I’ve canned something by myself from start to finish. It took longer than I thought, but it’ll be well worth it when we are eating green beans all winter! Here is how I canned the green beans…

First I put the jars and utensils in the dishwasher on a hi temp wash to sanitize them and washed out the pressure cooker and a large and small pot.

I used the smaller pot to sanitize the lids and rings. You’ll want to put them in almost boiling water for 5 minutes and used my magnetic wand to get them out.

While the dishwasher was running I went out to pick the beans. Lots and lots of beans!

I rinsed the beans and got to work breaking of the ends and peeling the strings. Then I broke them into about 2 inch pieces. This was the longest part of the process and would be more fun to do with 2 people.

I put 4 inches of water into pressure cooker and placed the rack in the bottom. I started to heat up the water as I worked on packing the jars with beans. I had more beans than I needed to fill 7 quart jars (which is how many fit in the cooker). So we ended up blanching (boiling for about 30 seconds to kill any enzymes) and putting the rest in a bag to freeze.

Once the jars were packed I poured in boiling water from the larger pot using a funnel. This would also be helpful with 2 people or having the correct size funnel to fit the jars you’re using.

I used a spatula to shift the beans around and remove any air pockets. I could then add a few more beans on top, but then had to spoonful out a little water so that they were filled leaving about 3/4 inch of room at the top.

Then I placed the lids on and snugly (but not too hard) put the rings on. I used my tongs to place the jars into the pressure cooker and put on the lid.

I let it vent steam for 10 minutes before adding the weight to pressurize the cooker. For our altitude (about 2400) I needed to cook them for 25 minutes once the pressure reached 12 lbs.  I had to gradually keep turning down the burner to keep the pressure at 12. After 25 minutes I removed the cooker from heat and let it cool down.

Once the pressure is back to zero I opened and removed the jars using tongs and placed them on cooling racks, spaced apart to cool gradually. And that’s how to can green beans!

Category: DIY Projects, Food, How-To, The Transplants