Summertime means fresh fruit and vegetables like green beans. They may be from your garden, a neighbor's garden, or from the Farmers Market; but, an abundance of the best tasting produce is at your fingertips. Today, we’re talking all about green beans. I’ll be teaching you how to can green beans over the next few weeks to get you through to the next harvest season.
Green beans are special to me. I have fond memories of snapping green beans on the porch with my grandmother and Aunts. I look at fresh green beans and I think of my family with fondness. This is something I look forward to doing with grandchildren as I hope to build these memories with them.
Cleaning Green Beans
Whether you have picked your green beans from your own garden, or purchased them from the Farmers Market, let’s get them cleaned and ready to eat. Green beans are featured in my latest book, I Bought It, Now What? Summer Edition. You can grab a copy of it here.
To clean your green beans, wash them for one minute in approx. 10 cups of water and ¼ cup of vinegar. Set a timer. You can watch a quick tutorial video below. Lay them out in a single layer to air dry. Line a glass container with a paper towel. Once the green beans are dry, place the beans in the glass container, put the lid on, and place the container in the fridge until you are ready to eat them.
I love my summer garden. Typically, I grow enough for us to eat a variety of fresh food, but not enough to preserve through winter months. I usually get my canning produce from the local Farmers Markets. I grabbed a bushel of green beans at a local market for canning. I plan the amount I want to can from one harvest season to the next.
Green Beans Are a Great First Canning Project
Green beans are a great first item to learn to pressure can with. Green beans can be snapped and prepared for canning without having to worry about them browning in between canning loads. There’s also no rush to get them into the jars. You can prepare the beans the night before and can them the next day.
When you can other items, like fruit, there are more steps involved. For instance, peaches need to be peeled and pitted. The fastest way to peel them is to drop them in boiling water to loosen the skin. Then they need to be pitted. They will brown quickly, which is why they need to be processed immediately. The process of canning green beans compared to peaches can be done at a slower, easier pace.
Supply List
Here is a list of supplies you will for this project:
- Canner
- Canning Jars, Lids and Rings
- Jar lifter
- Pot Holders
- Canning Salt*
- Measuring Spoons
- Boiling Water
- Green Beans
How to Can Green Beans
How to Can Green Beans
Equipment
- Pot Holders
- Measuring Spoons
Ingredients
- ¼ tsp. Canning Salt per jar of green beans*
- Boiling Water, fill jar leaving 1" of head space per jar
- 1 bushel Green Beans
Instructions
- Take your cleaned green beans and snap to the size you want. (I prefer my green beans about 1” in length.)
- Fill clean, hot jars, with raw green beans packing the beans in.Leave 1” of head space. *
- Add ¼ teaspoon salt to each jar. The salt can be dumped on top of the green beans. *
- Add boiling water to fill jars leaving 1” of head space.(To skip measuring each jar, 1” headspace is the bottom ring at the top of the jar.)
- Use a bubble remover tool to remove any bubbles.(If you don’t have this too, you can use a chopstick. The most important part is to get the air bubbles out. Watch this YouTube video to see how to do this.)
- Check to see if you need to add more green beans or if you have too much water. Adjust accordingly. Watch the YouTube video referenced in Step 5 to see how to do this.
- Clean the rims with a towel dipped in vinegar to ensure a good seal.
- Add the lids and rings.Tighten the rings to fingertip tight.
- Place your canning rack on the bottom of your pressure canner. You do not want your jars sitting directly on the bottom of the canner.
- Add water to the fill line of your pressure canner.
- Turn your stove on to medium heat to start warming the water.
- Add a glug of vinegar to the water to keep the minerals from getting deposited on your jars and lids.
- Load your jars into the canner.(For this project I was able to do two layers of seven jars for a total of 14 pints in my All American 921 Pressure Canner.)
- Put the pressure canner lid on the pressure canner and secure it.
- Turn up the heat up and vent the steam for 10 minutes.
- Add the weighted gauge.
- Continue heating for 10 pounds of pressure and maintain for processing time. *
- After your processing time has passed, turn the heat off and let the pressure naturally release.
- When the PSI returns to zero, remove the weighted gauge with a towel or pot holder. Making sure no steam comes out.
- After the gauge is removed, wait a few more minutes before removing the locks and opening the lid.
- Open the canner lid and wait 10 more minutes.
- Remove your jars using a jar lifter. Your jars will be hot!Place your jars on a towel and allow them to cool completely.
- Once your jars are cool, check the seals, label and date them before storing.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
A Few Final Canning Notes
A bushel of green beans yielded me 28-pint jars. I did pint jars because it is just Mike and I eating and I don’t like a lot of leftovers in the fridge.
The pressure canner I prefer is the All American 921. I like this canner because it has two gauges and locking lugs. I feel safer with the locking lugs. I did save up to buy this canner, but I also know this is an item I can pass down, it’s a legacy item.
I also use the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving that can be found in my Amazon Store.
Now that this project is completed, I know that we will have canned green beans until the next harvest season. I like knowing how my food was preserved and exactly what is in my food.
Have you canned green beans before? Now that you know how to can green beans, are you going to give it a try? I am interested in hearing about your canning experience.
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