Green Beans : Canning, Canning, and more....Canning

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit!!!

So here comes one of the "misadventures" of the year.  I bought a pound of Blue Lake beans this year because we had done so well in 2012.  I figured I could plant even more rows, and can even more beans, so we don't run out like we did early this spring.  (Will NOT be a problem this year...Holy Smokes!)

                                                             So the issue was this....                                                                          In 2012, we bought Blue Lake beans and we easily walked them while picking to our hearts content. But did anyone else know there is a difference between Blue Lake Bush and Blue lake Pole?....... Ya, me too, but being the typical man I am, I only partially read the package. 

It is darn near impossible to navigate through the intertwined mess we had this year. Nevertheless, I managed to get them all (wife is apparently "allergic" to the vines......so she says).

Here is Meatball with the pile of beans

Steps we used for canning

1 - Washed all the beans

2 - Cut off ends and then cut them into manageable bitesize pieces (3/4 - 1 inch)

3 - Blanched beans in boiling water for 5 minutes

4 - packed in hot jars and added boiling water to them (1/2 inch headspace)

5 - capped and put jars in pressure canner

6 - put cover on pressure canner and let steam escape for 10 minutes

7 - brought pressure to 10 pounds and held there for 25 minutes (pints) or 30 minutes (quarts)

8 - Turn off stove and let them cool naturally until safe to open pressure canner and lift jars out.

We ended up with 48 pints and 14 quarts 

Oh! and we made 3 pints of Dilly Beans to try this year too. Nice thing is, since they are pickled, we only needed the waterbath canner instead of the pressure canner.