Yesterday, the kids and I canned the five and a half gallons of green beans that we had gotten from the gardens. It was a lot of green beans, so I had trimmed, snapped, and gotten out the bad ones the day before.
I woke up early to wash and sterilize all my jars.
Then once the kids and I ate breakfast, we set to work.
Before you start to can green beans, or any vegetable for that matter, please note that all vegetables MUST be pressure-canned. Water-bath canning does not get the vegetables in the jars hot enough to kill all the bacteria that can harm you.
I set my youngest loose with the washing of the green beans.
While he was playing in the water, I set up the pressure canner on the stove. Before you turn it on, make certain that the bottom insert is inside the pressure canner. This keeps the jars off the bottom of the canner, which keeps them from blowing up inside the canner. Also, check your lid well. Make certain that the vent pipe is clear (that you can see through it to the other side from BOTH sides of the lid), and make certain that the nipple can freely rise and drop.
Fill your pressure canner with about three quarts of water. You want enough water in the canner to be around the sides of your jars but you DO NOT want the tops of the jars covered like you do in a water-bath canner. Since I was processing quart jars with this batch, I put in three quarts, but I use considerably less when I am processing smaller jars.
Also, before you begin, make certain that you have your rings and lids ready to go, and that all of your tools are on the counter and ready to use. It never fails for me. First time I can each year, I realize that I haven't gotten my tools out and cleaned them about the exact moment that I suddenly need my funnel. So I have to stop the process and go prepare all my tools.
It's an every single year thing.
Okay, once all of that is done (and my son was done playing in the water), I set him to work packing the jars while a big pot of water came to a boil on the stove. You will need this water to pour over your green beans before you seal them for canning.
We packed nineteen jars with green beans, and we packed them tight.
I moved seven of them over to my "Ring and Lid" station. I have a separate area for this for two main reasons. One, I don't accidentally fill too many with hot water for one batch, and two, with the kids helping me, it puts the jars in a place where I can fill them with boiling water and the kids won't accidentally touch one.
So, once they are over at the Ring and Lid station, I fill them up to the neck with boiling hot water. Then I take the Headspace Measuring Tool/ De-bubbler and I slide it down the sides inside the jar to knock any air bubbles loose. If you knock some loose and the water level falls, you will need to add more water to that jar. Make sure to leave a 1" headspace between the top of the jar and the top of the hot water.
Wipe the rims of the jars, and put your lid and ring on and tighten until finger tight. You don't have to muscle these jars closed. You turn it until you have to hold the jar to make it any tighter. That's enough.
Place your seven jars in the canner. You can pressure-can as few as 3 quart jars in a batch, so if you have less, don't worry. Just put them in. Put your lid on top and make sure it seals shut. Then turn you pot on High heat.
This part takes the longest, especially the first batch. You are coming from room temperature water to boiling. It takes my pot about thirty to forty-five minutes to do this. Once the steam is venting out the steam pipe in a steady flow, start your timer for 10 minutes.
When your timer goes off, put the weight or pressure regulator (depending on your model of pressure canner) on top of the vent pipe. This allows the canner to start building pressure. Watch your gauge now. After a few minutes, it will start to climb.
Now, for my altitude, I pressure-can at 10 lbs of pressure. If you are in a higher altitude than me (which most of the world is because I am at sea level), you will need to find out your altitude and check your canner's manual or the National Center for Home Food Preservation website to find your pounds of pressure for your altitude and how long you will need to process at that amount of pressure.
For me, it is 10 lbs of pressure for 25 minutes for quart jars of green beans.
Now, when you hit your amount of pressure, you will need to lower your heat under your pot to maintain that amount of pressure for your allotted amount of minutes. For me, I go from High heat to Medium-Low heat, or about a 4 if you have a numbered dial. If it goes one pound higher, that is fine, but if it goes below your pounds per pressure amount, you have to let it come back up to the pounds of pressure you need then restart your timer.
Just whatever you do, DO NOT REMOVE THE LID OR THE PRESSURE REGULATOR AT ANY POINT DURING THIS PROCESS. I can't stress that enough.
DON'T DO IT.
Once your timer has gone off and you have processed your green beans for your allotted number of minutes at your specified pounds of pressure, turn the heat off. Nothing else. Just turn off the heat and let that pot depressurize. For me, that takes about half an hour. You will let that pot sit until the pressure gauge is back to zero and the nipple has dropped. I let mine sit for five extra minutes once the nipple has dropped just to make sure.
When this has finally happened, you want to open the lid away from your face. You want the steam to escape off the back of the pot, not the front.
That is not a facial steaming that you want, I promise you.
Remove your jars and place them on an old bath towel on a safe surface. I use the other end of my kitchen table. I prepare at one end and put my finished goods at the other to cool.
And there you have it. Jars of canned green beans.
If you have to do multiple batches, just repeat the steps again. The heating up process once you put the lid on won't be so long after the first batch because the water will still be fairly hot, but the steps are the same.
I hope this helps out everyone. I know this year a lot of us are trying to preserve our own food due to Coronavirus, and some of us have never done this before. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment.
Have fun canning!
