I'm canning green beans today

[Blonde Granny]

Yikes! You've got a lot of green beans on your plate (pun intended).  Wish I could help, but the only thing I ever canned was tomatoes.  That was many years ago and I used a water bath canning pot.  I made a lot of jam and jelly back in those days too.

Let us know how many jars you end up with, curious minds want to know.

[Deleted]

I do cut ends. I blanch and freeze beans though, so no help there. Good luck!

[Sharon]

Two bushels.   I hope that is not correct because that would be 120 pounds of green beans.  Although if you are splitting it across 3 households, still.

If any of the kids are old enough to snap beans they have a day long job.  My DD is my chief bean snapper, only this year she was working so I had to mostly do it myself and we only had 20-30 lbs of green beans.  Not exactly sure how many since we got lucky and didn't have to buy them.

I just cover the kitchen table with newspapers and a pile of beans in the middle.  There are bowls around the table and we start snapping.  I prefer to snap rather than cut for no real reason other than because.

Good luck and just remember how good those beans will taste this next winter.

[kittensaver]

I cut not snap, and freeze too, so I got nothin'

But good luck and have fun! I'm cheering for you I'm canning tomatoes tomorrow

[Sharon]

Jul 27, 2013 9:15:13 GMT -5 @wrongsideof30 said:

A bushel of greens bean is ~30lbs, so I have ~60lbs.  I'll post how long it took us and many quarts we ended up with when we're done.

That isn't too bad, especially since you are canning in quarts and have two pressure cookers going.  You will probably end up with around 30 quarts.  If the pressure cookers hold 7 quarts each that is not too bad at all.

I can pints since most of the year it just myself (DD is away at college).  We did 47 pints.  That is a lot of time in the pressure cooker.  DD takes beans down to her apartment a few jars at a time.

[Sharon]

Jul 27, 2013 9:18:09 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

I cut not snap, and freeze too, so I got nothin'

But good luck and have fun! I'm cheering for you I'm canning tomatoes tomorrow

Tomatoes are my favorite thing to can because they are so easy.  The long processing time stinks but the rest of it is the easiest to can.  I just picked the first tomato yesterday so we have a while before I have enough to can.

[Sharon]

Enjoy the beans.  Nothing is better than home canned beans.

[Deleted]

Can you just stick the jars in the freezer? 

Im hoping someone with knowledge on this responds!

[Sharon]

I have had beans also lose liquid.  They were fine to eat later.  I would be more concerned about them not getting the full time in the canner because it was not allowed to drop to zero by itself.  Not sure why it would concern me but it just does.

Did you let the pressure cooker vent for 10 minutes before you shut the petcock valve and started raising the pressure?

[Deleted]

We're moms notes for a pressure cooker? 
They did seal...?

[Sharon]

How long did you process the jars?  Nana's notes may not be up to date with current research on the canning times.  Does your state have an extension service?  The county extension office will have information on processing time, use of the pressure cooker etc.

[swamp]

If they sealed, I'd think they should be fine. 

[Blonde Granny]

Art after all the hard work yesterday in can understand being discouraged.  If you have any concerns about the safety of eating them, then don't, thro the beans out.

[happyscooter]

If you are still concerned that they aren't any good, send them to me to taste.  I love canned green beans!  I'll pay for shipping.

[happyscooter]

I live in the small town I grew up in.  It is a town where there were textile mills and small homes.  People had gardens and would plant each year.  Then you would sit out in the porch swing and talk and drink sweet tea and snap beans.

[Deleted]

Oh no. I'm sorry about the table. I think if the beans are sealed hey should be safe? But may discolor. If it was me I'd call the extension office and see what they say. 

There is such a learning curve on this stuff these days, I guess because we ont pass it don like they used to....

[kadee79]

Well, I hope I'm not too late.  The jars that lost liquid will be fine if they are sealed.  I've had that happen many, many times because I too get impatient and remove the jars sooner than I should.  I always "play" with the pressure thing to get the temp down sooner.  Otherwise, if I'm doing several batches in one day...it takes tooooo long.
Word of advice...buy a kitchen counter rubber mat for hot canning jars to be put on when coming out of the canner.  After they have cooled a bit they can be transferred to another location for complete cooling.  Check your local hardware store for the mats if they carry canning supplies like my Ace Hardware does here.

[Deleted]

So you have a good salsa recipe? 

How do you prepare your salsa? By hand? Food processor?

[mrsdutt]

I cut the ends with a pair of scissors.  This way I can cut 5 or 6 at a time.

[NoNamePerson]

Jul 27, 2013 7:54:25 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

I now prefer frozen to canned. However I don't like the ice crusts that accumulate on the beans, so have been freezing them in glass containers of water. Canning jars work great for this.

I vaccum seal mine. But I'm not doing a bushel at a time - just what I pick out of my itty bitty garden

[kittensaver]

Thanks for the shout-out, wrongside! Just FYI for everyone, the salsa recipe is great for ugly produce or bottom-of-the-bushel tomatoes at the end of the day at the Farmer's Market - a great way to get good quality but not pretty ingredients for cheap. It's also a great recipe for when someone gives you overflow from their garden.

I wouldn't buy gorgeous produce just to can salsa. With gorgeous, fresh in-season produce I would make fresh salsa. JMHO. YMMV.

The Chicago-based chef Rick Bayless has some great fresh salsa recipes on his website. Happy salsa making!

[steff]

Aug 1, 2013 10:01:42 GMT -5 @wrongsideof30 said:

Aug 1, 2013 7:52:59 GMT -5 oped said:

So you have a good salsa recipe? 

How do you prepare your salsa? By hand? Food processor?

I've never canned it before. I'll be experimenting with different recipes. I think there is one in the gardening thread I started. I'm going to try this one too:


www.pickyourown.org/salsa.htm



Proboards is acting really weird for me...

I used that salsa recipe last year & it worked out great.  I did it once with vinegar & the next time with lemon juice instead.  Kiddo & hubby liked the vinegar one & I liked the lemon juice one. This year I tried out a pre-mix salsa pack & didn't like it as much, so my next batch I'm back to this recipe. 

I prefer to blanch & freeze green beans.  I also take pole beans (thicker & IMO kinda fuzzy green beans) & cook them with onions & bacon until done, cool to room temp & then package for the freezer.  Same with squash.  I make my sweet & spicy squash (onions, bacon, peppers & brown sugar), cook until done, cool & then package for the freezer.  I made big bags for weekends & individual bags for hubby's meals. 

Our tomatoes are just now starting to really pop, last night I made 4 pint bags of spaghetti sauce & 4 pint bags of meat sauce for the freezer. 

This year we added purple hull peas & black eyed peas to the garden.  So far I've put up 14 pint bags of purple hulls (blanched, ice bath, & into the freezer bags) & 5 pint bags of black eyes. 

The first 2 months of our garden, I was buried in cucumbers.  I've put up 20 quarts of spicy dill spears, 35 pints of bread & butter pickles, 20 pints of garlic dill spears/slices & 30 pints of regular dill slices.  (I'm SICK of cucumbers!)  I used a pre-made mix because this was my first year doing pickles & I didn't want to waste a ton of money on the ingredients in case I royally screwed it up. 

I've split our corn harvest between frozen cream corn & just freezing the ears whole.  Last week I shucked & froze 30 ears of yellow & white mixed corn. 

My garden bucket (hubby uses a giant tote to pick) today is full of purple hulls, tomatoes, peppers, corn & cantalopes.  I hate cantalopes & have no clue what the heck to do with them other than slice & put into the fridge.  With all the teens, they inhale the watermelons, so that's not a problem.  BUt I have 4 cantalopes picked just today. 

[kittensaver]

Happy Thursday! Here's an article that will probably make the gardeners out there nod their heads!

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/01/gardening.aspx

[Deleted]

Stef... You freeze your sauce? I thought I wasn't supposed to freeze tomato products?

[kittensaver]

Aug 1, 2013 17:45:28 GMT -5 oped said:

Stef... You freeze your sauce? I thought I wasn't supposed to freeze tomato products?

You're not "supposed" to freeze fresh tomatoes - they turn to mush because their water content is too high. It's fine to freeze cooked tomatoes (sauces, salsas, etc).

[steff]

I can my salsa, but I freeze my tomato sauce.  I haven't ever had any problems with my frozen sauce. 

[Deleted]

Yay! I'll be freezing sauce this year. Bags? Do you use freezer containers?

[swamp]

I freeze spaghetti sauce in gallon ziplock bags. 

[kittensaver]

I freeze as much as I'm able, but especially liquids (homemade stock, soups, sauces). I use the quart and gallon size zip-top bags that are made extra-thick specifically for the freezer. The advantage of bags over other freezer containers is that once frozen flat, they can be "stood up"/stacked sideways to save a lot of room. The downside is that they are plastic (from crude oil/petroleum, a non-renewable resource) and end up in landfill too soon. Sigh.

Home canned foods have a longer "shelf life" than frozen foods - sometimes much longer. But at least to me, many things don't taste nearly as good when they're canned as opposed to frozen (most vegetables, with the exception of tomatoes and tomato products like sauces and salsas). But the glass jars are more food friendly/no chemical leaching and they can be used over and over, and finally recycled when old or broken, so they stay out of landfill.

[Apple]

I would call the extension office about the lost liquid.

If it had been processed correctly, it would probably be due to "siphoning", and not a big deal. Any of the food not submersed in liquid would just be lesser quality (more mushy), but not dangerous to eat.

But, for your problem the processing time was likely the issue. They may have better news if you ask them directly, but in my class tonight (we just happened to can green beans...) we heard the "when in doubt, throw it out".

Also, they (Extension office) recommend not using a recipe more than 5 years old since methods have changed, as well as the pressure canners themselves. The instructor says she gets a lot of push back on this and often just gives the most up-to-date info and then says "decide for yourself".

A couple important things... If you are high altitude (over 1000 feet), you need to adjust the pressure (I have a chart if anyone needs it, but you should be able to look it up on the extension website). Also, it's recommended to get the gauge checked annually. I know here the extension office will do that for free, it only takes a minute.

If you can access a class for pressure cooking, I highly recommend it.

Here are a couple great sites for resources (and some recipes)...

nchfp.uga.edu/

extension.oregonstate.edu/community/food-preservation

Both will have the most recent methods and recommendations.

Our instructor also recommended the Ball Blue Book of Canning, but said you should use the newest version you can.