How to Can Green Beans
Welcome back to Grindle Creek Homestead. Today we are going to be canning green beans. Don’t feel that you have to grow your green beans to preserve them. Some years, I grow them. Other years, I have to buy them. The summer of 2022, I had to purchase my green beans because the heat scorched the vines before they could ever produce blossoms. Sometimes stuff like that happens.
So purchase them if you have to.
For this process, you will need the following equipment and ingredients:
Large stock pot
Pressure canner
Canning utensils
Quart or Pint Jars
Colander
Green beans
Non-iodized salt
Preparing your Green Beans
Wash and snap your green beans. If you want to do a part vinegar, part water soak, do that. It won’t affect the flavor at all. If you want your green beans long, just snap off the ends. If you want them shorter, remove the ends and snap them into whatever size suits you. It’s your kitchen, your rules. I also wash them after I snap them just to make sure I removed all the debris.
Canning your green beans
Pack green beans in jars leaving a generous 1 inch of headspace while bringing a stockpot of clean water to a boil on the stove. Once all your jars are packed with green beans, add ½ tsp of salt into each jar for pint jars, 1 tsp salt in each jar for quart jars. Once the water in your stock pot is boiling, ladle it into the jars with the green beans. Use your debubbling tool to remove any air bubbles. Add more water to your jars, if needed. Wipe your rims and screw on your lids and rings. Place jars in your pressure canner.
Once your jars are loaded in your pressure canner, add your water to the pressure canner. Your water level needs to be along the sides of the jars, but it shouldn’t be over the tops of the jars like you do when you are water-bath canning. Lock down the lid, and bring your canner to a boil over medium-high heat.
Vent the steam for 10 minutes, then place your weight over the vent hole. Continue heating until you achieve 10 lbs pressure on your gauge (this measurement is based on your altitude. If your altitude is below 1000 feet, this is the correct pressure. If you are above 1000 feet, please go to the USDA’s website for canning and look up the correct information for your altitude.) Maintain pressure for the entire processing time. Pints process for 20 minutes and quarts process for 25 minutes. (It can go a little above pressure, but it cannot go below 10 lbs of pressure. If it goes under, you have to turn off the burner, let the canner completely depressurize, then start at Step 3 and begin again. If it climbs too high, lower your heat. NEVER leave a pressure canner unattended.)
Once your green beans are done processing, turn off the heat to the burner and walk away. DON’T open that lid. Just walk away until the pressure returns to 0 on the gauge and the nipple on the back of your pressure canner lid drops. Then, and only then, can you remove the weight from the vent and remove the canner lid. Make sure you open the lid AWAY from your face. The steam that escapes is not a facial that you will ever want. I promise.
Remove the jars from the canner and let them sit for 12–24 hours to cool and seal. Once they have cooled and sealed, remove the rings, wipe down the jars to remove any residue that may have lingered from the canning process, label and store in a cool, dark place. If you have any jars that did not seal, place them in the refrigerator and use those jars within a week.
Closing
I hope that you enjoyed this little canning tutorial, and I hope that it helps with your endeavors to be more self-sufficient in your kitchen. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or contact me. As always, have a wonderful day, and God bless.
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Grindle Creek Homestead is a homestead in Eastern North Carolina. It is owned and operated by Jessica Cauthon, who has been gardening and preserving food for most of her life. She runs four Medium publications: Around the Homestead — a journal of our day-to-day life on the homestead, Stocking Up — a publication dedicated to canning, freezing, and other means of food preservation, In Stitches — a home for crochet patterns, knitting patterns, and everything crafty, and Down in the Garden — a publication devoted to growing fresh food and being a steward to the land. Grindle Creek can be found online on Payhip and on Facebook.
