Disclaimer:
This post is longer than I planned. I may break my posts up in the future to keep methods, gardening & canning recipes separate. /disclaimer
With any canning / food processing, my ultimate goal is to process what we will use until the next time we grow / produce that particular item. For example, I like beets, but we don't eat a lot of them. One years' crop will last us several years. That way I can make the most of my space. If I can rotate what I grow, it's less to process every year. I'm going to start my canning series here with my exception to the above.
Green Beans.
I love canned green beans. They are tender with loads of flavour. Green beans are one of the staples in my pantry. We grow them every year, and always run out. I have limited space to grow, and limited space to store food. We enjoy every jar!
In my experience, green beans have been one of the easiest plants to grow. I prefer pole beans over bush beans. We typically grow Blue Lake variety. West Coast Seeds has a great description of them. (We don't necessarily always buy West Coast Seeds, but they are my favourite brand. Local and good quality seeds.)
Summary:
This year, we started germinating seeds in April and planted in May. (Our climate is suitable to start earlier, but we were busy this year.) They grew for the appropriate 70 days and produced almost 20lbs (so far). Those were trimmed, cut and washed, and packed into sterilized jars with 1/2 tsp of canning salt and boiling water. Then they were pressure canned at 10 lbs for 115 minutes. 20 lbs yielded 34 x 500ml jars. Plus a few packages blanched and frozen.
Let's break some of this down.
Seed selection:
Why we choose Blue Lake:
Firstly, they are open pollinated. Seed Savers has a great description of what that means.
Now that we have our seeds picked, let's talk about the growing stage.
Location in the garden & soil:
We picked a location that would not create unwanted sun blockage for other plants. We planted at the most north eastern part of the garden. While beans do prefer a slightly acidic soil (ph 6.0-6.5), they are not that fussy and will root well in almost any soil. You can adjust the acidity/alkalinity of your soil by adding lime or sulfur. Here is a good article on the subject.
After some regular watering and regular weeding, 70 days later, we come time to harvest.
Harvesting is pretty easy, if a bean is ready for harvest, it will detach from the plant when gently tugged.
Preparing for processing:
Anything you bring into the kitchen should be washed. Even home grown without spray. Rain will splash dirt on them. And little crawly creatures may have had their dirty little feet on them. I like to trim both ends, and then cut into pieces.
Whether you are freezing, dehydrating or canning, green beans should be blanched. Blanching has different times for various produce. Submerge in boiling water for a short time, and then move into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Here is a good article on blanching.
All prepared packages should be marked with the month and year and short description.
Eg: "Green Beans Aug 2016"
Freezing:
Lay blanched beans in a single layer on a parchment line cookie sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then measure out into freezer bags, or for longer storage, into vacuum seal bags. Mark packages and store. Frozen vegetables have a recommended storage of up to one year. Personally, I will continue to eat anything in the freezer that is not freezer burnt and not covered in frost. Although, I probably would draw the line at 3 years. Here is a great article on frozen food shelf life.
Dehydrating:
I use an Excalibur 3900B front loading dehydrator. It's absolutely the best. (My loving father bought it for me a few years ago.)
The absolutely best resource for learning about dehydrating, in my opinion, is a YouTube channel called Dehydrate2Store. Which I watched excessively before deciding dehydrating was for me.
Dehydrating has many benefits. Light weight storage. No electricity needed to maintain storage. Extremely long term storage (30 years). The ability to process RAW food.
I digress.
Lay blanched beans in a single layer and dehydrate at between 125 - 135 deg F for 6-8 hours. Store in either vacuum sealed bags (with or without oxygen absorbers), or in jars (which can also be vacuum sealed). Don't forget to mark your packages.
Canning:
Be aware that not everything can be water bath canned. I've heard people say, "My Grandma never pressure canned. She would process in a water bath canner for 3 hours." Use your smarts, and follow modern preservation instructions, but also adapt, use common sense. Some people would discard a turnip that has worms. I cut around the worms and process the unaffected part of the turnip.
Green beans are a low acid food (as most green vegetables are), and must be pressure canned.
Pressure canning can seem very intimidating. I will admit, the first time I did it, I hid around a corner for the whole processing time. Warily peeking around to see if it was going to explode.
One of the key things to remember is you must have a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker. You cannot can in a pressure cooker. Here's a helpful little rhyme: "You can cook in a canner, you can't can in a cooker." I use an All American canner. I got mine second hand, but you can buy them here.
It is not imperative to make sure jars are extra sanitized for pressure canning. Just make sure they are washed well and rinsed well. You don't want any soap residue. The steam in the pressure canner does the sanitizing.
Fill jars with blanched beans, top with salt. 1/2 tsp for pints (500 ml), 1 tsp for quarts (1L). Add boiling water until there is 1/2 inch headspace. (I usually bring my water to a boil and then just keep it at a simmer until I'm ready for it.) De-bubble your jars, and wipe the rims. Add warmed lids & rings, and screw til finger tight.
Load into canner, using the racks it came with, with about 2" of water in the bottom. If you have hard water, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to prevent clouding on your jars.
Seal the canner lid, and turn temperature to high. Once there is a steady stream of steam, set a timer for 10 minutes. (This can take up to 30 minutes to get to the right temperature.) After the 10 minutes, apply your weight, and wait until the appropriate pressure is reached. (This takes about 5-10 minutes.) Now start your processing time. After a few minutes, drop your stove burner dial down a little. And then a few minutes later, drop it down a little again. You don't want your temperature dial to be at maximum for the whole process, and you don't want to decrease it to the point where your pressure drops. I find that the dial being between med/high & high works well. I usually check the pressure gauge every 5-10 minutes for the first 30 minutes, and then I know the pressure is stable. Then I walk away until my timer goes off.
Turn the burner off, and remove the weight, and allow canner to full vent all steam. (Wear an oven mitt and be prepared - the steam is noisy.) After all pressure is released (pressure dial is reading zero) set a timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the canner lid, and then wait yet again for another 10 minutes.
Using jar lifter tongs, remove jars to a towel covered surface and leave undisturbed until cooled. Overnight is most convenient.
After they have cooled, check the seals. They should have "pinged", and when pressed, they are firm and do not bounce back. Remove the rings, and wipe the rims & jars down with hot water. After they have dried, add your labels, and move to your pantry.
Canned foods have a recommended shelf life of up to one year. I personally will continue to eat foods that do not have signs of spoilage. If the seal is intact, and there is no visible signs of spoilage I will use my common sense about eating it. I would probably draw the line at 5 years.
Always make sure to read and follow your canner manufacturers instructions for your canner.
And there you have it friends.
Fondly,
Mrs B
Social Media Links:
Facebook: charity.gruenwald
Twitter: @cgruenwald
Instagram: nicaoidh77
Pinterest: nicaoidh77
Snapchat: MrsBeekeeper
This post is longer than I planned. I may break my posts up in the future to keep methods, gardening & canning recipes separate. /disclaimer
With any canning / food processing, my ultimate goal is to process what we will use until the next time we grow / produce that particular item. For example, I like beets, but we don't eat a lot of them. One years' crop will last us several years. That way I can make the most of my space. If I can rotate what I grow, it's less to process every year. I'm going to start my canning series here with my exception to the above.
Green Beans.
I love canned green beans. They are tender with loads of flavour. Green beans are one of the staples in my pantry. We grow them every year, and always run out. I have limited space to grow, and limited space to store food. We enjoy every jar!
In my experience, green beans have been one of the easiest plants to grow. I prefer pole beans over bush beans. We typically grow Blue Lake variety. West Coast Seeds has a great description of them. (We don't necessarily always buy West Coast Seeds, but they are my favourite brand. Local and good quality seeds.)
Summary:
This year, we started germinating seeds in April and planted in May. (Our climate is suitable to start earlier, but we were busy this year.) They grew for the appropriate 70 days and produced almost 20lbs (so far). Those were trimmed, cut and washed, and packed into sterilized jars with 1/2 tsp of canning salt and boiling water. Then they were pressure canned at 10 lbs for 115 minutes. 20 lbs yielded 34 x 500ml jars. Plus a few packages blanched and frozen.
Let's break some of this down.
Seed selection:
Why we choose Blue Lake:
Firstly, they are open pollinated. Seed Savers has a great description of what that means.
"While hybrids have their benefits, choosing open-pollinated varieties conserves the genetic diversity of garden vegetables and prevents the loss of unique varieties in the face of dwindling agricultural biodiversity. Furthermore, focusing on heirloom varieties creates a historical connection to gardening and food production, building a more sustainable future by carrying on our garden heritage. By choosing open-pollinated and heirloom varieties, you have the ability to help conserve biodiversity and to contribute to the stories behind our seeds."Secondly, they are an abundant producer. They will continue to produce pods as long as the season lasts, as long as you keep them picked.
Now that we have our seeds picked, let's talk about the growing stage.
Location in the garden & soil:
We picked a location that would not create unwanted sun blockage for other plants. We planted at the most north eastern part of the garden. While beans do prefer a slightly acidic soil (ph 6.0-6.5), they are not that fussy and will root well in almost any soil. You can adjust the acidity/alkalinity of your soil by adding lime or sulfur. Here is a good article on the subject.
After some regular watering and regular weeding, 70 days later, we come time to harvest.
Harvesting is pretty easy, if a bean is ready for harvest, it will detach from the plant when gently tugged.
Preparing for processing:
Anything you bring into the kitchen should be washed. Even home grown without spray. Rain will splash dirt on them. And little crawly creatures may have had their dirty little feet on them. I like to trim both ends, and then cut into pieces.
Whether you are freezing, dehydrating or canning, green beans should be blanched. Blanching has different times for various produce. Submerge in boiling water for a short time, and then move into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Here is a good article on blanching.
All prepared packages should be marked with the month and year and short description.
Eg: "Green Beans Aug 2016"
Freezing:
Lay blanched beans in a single layer on a parchment line cookie sheet and freeze for about 30 minutes to an hour. Then measure out into freezer bags, or for longer storage, into vacuum seal bags. Mark packages and store. Frozen vegetables have a recommended storage of up to one year. Personally, I will continue to eat anything in the freezer that is not freezer burnt and not covered in frost. Although, I probably would draw the line at 3 years. Here is a great article on frozen food shelf life.
Dehydrating:
I use an Excalibur 3900B front loading dehydrator. It's absolutely the best. (My loving father bought it for me a few years ago.)
The absolutely best resource for learning about dehydrating, in my opinion, is a YouTube channel called Dehydrate2Store. Which I watched excessively before deciding dehydrating was for me.
Dehydrating has many benefits. Light weight storage. No electricity needed to maintain storage. Extremely long term storage (30 years). The ability to process RAW food.
I digress.
Lay blanched beans in a single layer and dehydrate at between 125 - 135 deg F for 6-8 hours. Store in either vacuum sealed bags (with or without oxygen absorbers), or in jars (which can also be vacuum sealed). Don't forget to mark your packages.
Canning:
Be aware that not everything can be water bath canned. I've heard people say, "My Grandma never pressure canned. She would process in a water bath canner for 3 hours." Use your smarts, and follow modern preservation instructions, but also adapt, use common sense. Some people would discard a turnip that has worms. I cut around the worms and process the unaffected part of the turnip.
Green beans are a low acid food (as most green vegetables are), and must be pressure canned.
Pressure canning can seem very intimidating. I will admit, the first time I did it, I hid around a corner for the whole processing time. Warily peeking around to see if it was going to explode.
One of the key things to remember is you must have a pressure canner, not a pressure cooker. You cannot can in a pressure cooker. Here's a helpful little rhyme: "You can cook in a canner, you can't can in a cooker." I use an All American canner. I got mine second hand, but you can buy them here.
It is not imperative to make sure jars are extra sanitized for pressure canning. Just make sure they are washed well and rinsed well. You don't want any soap residue. The steam in the pressure canner does the sanitizing.
Fill jars with blanched beans, top with salt. 1/2 tsp for pints (500 ml), 1 tsp for quarts (1L). Add boiling water until there is 1/2 inch headspace. (I usually bring my water to a boil and then just keep it at a simmer until I'm ready for it.) De-bubble your jars, and wipe the rims. Add warmed lids & rings, and screw til finger tight.
Load into canner, using the racks it came with, with about 2" of water in the bottom. If you have hard water, add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to prevent clouding on your jars.
Seal the canner lid, and turn temperature to high. Once there is a steady stream of steam, set a timer for 10 minutes. (This can take up to 30 minutes to get to the right temperature.) After the 10 minutes, apply your weight, and wait until the appropriate pressure is reached. (This takes about 5-10 minutes.) Now start your processing time. After a few minutes, drop your stove burner dial down a little. And then a few minutes later, drop it down a little again. You don't want your temperature dial to be at maximum for the whole process, and you don't want to decrease it to the point where your pressure drops. I find that the dial being between med/high & high works well. I usually check the pressure gauge every 5-10 minutes for the first 30 minutes, and then I know the pressure is stable. Then I walk away until my timer goes off.
Turn the burner off, and remove the weight, and allow canner to full vent all steam. (Wear an oven mitt and be prepared - the steam is noisy.) After all pressure is released (pressure dial is reading zero) set a timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the canner lid, and then wait yet again for another 10 minutes.
Using jar lifter tongs, remove jars to a towel covered surface and leave undisturbed until cooled. Overnight is most convenient.
After they have cooled, check the seals. They should have "pinged", and when pressed, they are firm and do not bounce back. Remove the rings, and wipe the rims & jars down with hot water. After they have dried, add your labels, and move to your pantry.
Canned foods have a recommended shelf life of up to one year. I personally will continue to eat foods that do not have signs of spoilage. If the seal is intact, and there is no visible signs of spoilage I will use my common sense about eating it. I would probably draw the line at 5 years.
Always make sure to read and follow your canner manufacturers instructions for your canner.
And there you have it friends.
Fondly,
Mrs B
Social Media Links:
Facebook: charity.gruenwald
Twitter: @cgruenwald
Instagram: nicaoidh77
Pinterest: nicaoidh77
Snapchat: MrsBeekeeper
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