Our first experience with pressure canning

[Blackdog Lin]

It went fairly well. We now have 7 beautiful quarts of fresh green beans ready to be set aside for this winter. It would be much easier to just go buy cans of green beans on sale at the grocery store - but that's not the point, is it?

Backstory: In April DH says he's put 2 rows of green beans in the garden. I ask why, as he hasn't done green beans in years and years, 'cause as he says "I just can't grow green beans". He says well, I wanted to try them again, and did two rows 'cause we'll lose half of 'em. Okay. So we have an unbelievably mild winter, and on top of that an unbelivably perfect spring, and then we have.....green bean bushes. Two full rows of green beans coming up lush and bearing. Were almost late to recognize the bounty, thank goodness I went out there to look and said s**$, I think we have green beans coming out the wazoo - and we did.

So I'm wearing myself out getting out there every three days to pick. Took me 1 1/2 hours yesterday morning, and by golly I wasn't gonna waste any of them. And so we got the new pressure canner out (the All American creme'-de-la-creme' 9.something or other big boy that I bought last year thinking ahead to retirement) and gave it a try.

DH was plumb scared of the process (think his mother turned him off pressure cookers 30 years ago), but it went well. Once you accept the fact that you're gonna be cleaning and snapping the beans for 3 hours, well, after that, it's not any harder to pressure-can them than to freeze them.

Damn beans are still coming on, and I'm gonna nag DH into pressure-canning at least one more time. But for our first tiime, I'm plumb happy with our results. (Though with 3 grocery bags of beans, should't you get more than 7 quarts of canned beans? It's a little dissapointing.)

Anyone else doing the canning thing?

[awakenedsoul]

That's fantastic! Good for you! I've been reading about canning but haven't tried it yet. It must feel great. What an accomplishment!

[razz]

Wonderful to hear. We much prefer our homecanned beans. Two comments re growing beans - the soil must be really warm and moist so that they get a quick start and that helps get ahead of the cutworms. Just read the instructions for the beans this year and they say don't soak as it causes poor germination so that is a change from earlier years.

Our soil is warm and wet enough so I am planting ours today.

Bean salad in the winter with homecanned beans is wonderful. I mix equal parts of canned beans, cut up tomatoes and cukes, some kidney or other legumes if desired or favourite cheese like mozzarella and sprinkle lightly with sundried tomato dressing serving over shredded or leaf lettuce. It is such a treat and a complete meal that we have it often.

[Float On]

Congrats on your crop!
I really want to learn canning. Mom said she had enough of it canning in the old farmhouse with no AC and that she would never touch it again.
My beans did well this year as well but I only planted a 6'x4' raised bed. I'm on my 2nd picking and will probably get a 3rd if we get the rain we're expecting today.

[Blackdog Lin]

Update: I picked beans (for another 1 1/2 hours, the darn things just keep on producing and my back is killing me) this morning, told DH they were in the fridge. He asks: is there enough for another batch? I know he means: is there enough to take the trouble to can them? I say yes, and tonight I come home from work to find him industriously cleaning beans and dishwashering canning jars.

Success! I have converted this man of mine to pressure canning! There's another 7 quarts of green beans cooling on the counter right now. He's a convert.....and I have hopes of more pressure-canning of garden produce in the near future.....

(.....but I am really tired of picking green beans. I made a mental and personal committment to taking care of the garden this year, but it really is wearing me out. We've gardened, and then ignored the garden we put in, for years. This is the first year for me to "take charge", as it were, and make sure we actually harvest and preserve what we put in. It's wearing me out.....

[razz]

BL, just think of the garden effort as your fitness centre. That is what I do as well as walking the dog. I am amazed how healthily gardening stretches your muscles without having to pay a high monthly fee.
I do find that I need to stagger the days of heavy labour with days of light activity.

Do you sit down when you do the prep work? That makes a big difference for me. We put the washed veggies or fruit in a large colander on the table and place the compost bucket (two different buckets for two people) on the floor on spreadout newspaper and a large 16 qt bowl off beside it to take the prepped produce. I cannot stand at the sink and do the prep anymore.

Last week, I picked strawberries (5x 4litre =about 20 qts each time) for our freezer at a friend's PYO patch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and that effort was too much so took Saturday off completely from the garden. The house gets sadly neglected this time of year so I did some catch up there.

Gardening is both a mindgame as well as physical activity to see what is worth growing, how best to seed and harvest, the best storage and the best taste for both financial and satisfaction reasons.
EG - Beans are worth it and we pressure can enough jars and freeze to last two years so next year we will skip beans. We also grow two plantings of onion sets for both green onions and fall harvest, potatoes since the early potatoes are so pricey...

[Tussiemussies]

Did also a few years back buy a nice pressure canner but have only ever made beans with it. Would love to try vegetables, so it is inspiring to hear about your success.

Haven't tried growing green beans. What do you think are the factors that make them grow well? You said you had a great spring and I think someone else said to make sure the soil is warm enough another mentioned not to soak the seeds to germinate.

Also love to eat green beans raw so I'd be munching as I worked.

Did you ever think of Pickeling some?

[Nella]

Isn't it satisfying to have those quarts sitting on your shelf? I love canning and had the great good fortune to learn how to do it from my mother and grandmother. In fact, I have my grandmother's pressure canner. It's one of my most precious possessions! It may not seem like it's worth the effort now, but in future you'll be glad you put the effort into it as there's nothing for taste like home-canned goods.

[Blackdog Lin]

Yes it is satisfying, and yes I'll be awful pleased this winter when we are enjoying all the garden bounty.....it's all just a little overwhelming for me right now, with trying to keep up with all the picking and planning and preparing, along with the job and the bill-paying and the errand-running (thank goodness DH is able to do most of the actual preserving).

So far: 10 qt. bags of green beans blanched and frozen; 14 qts. and 11 pints green beans pressure-canned; 5 pints pickled green beans, and 1 pint pickled okra (DH ran out of beans w/one jar to go, so I ran out and picked a handful of little okra - it's just now coming on); and 6 pints dill pickle slices. All of the pickling is done with a hot water bath, instead of the pressure canner.

Monday: pick cukes and okra. If enough cukes planning a batch of bread-n-butter pickles.
Tuesday: pick green beans. Again. sigh.

Let's not even think about the sweet corn and the tomatoes coming on later.....

I AM grateful for the bounty this year, and especially grateful to have the pressure canner which is opening up more ways for us to preserve what we're growing. I'm just basically kind of a lazy sort, and kind of regretting this commitment I made to myself to keep up with the garden this year..... :)

[Mrs. Hermit]

The beans will slack off soon, usually by the time the tomatoes are coming on. We used to can about 2000 jars a year of veggies, fruit and meat. "To everything there is a season" takes on new meaning when you are canning!

[razz]

2000 jars!!!!!:0! Omigosh!!!!
I will save that nugget of info for a day when DH complains about having to do two sessions with the pressure canner and suggest that maybe we should consider doing a similar number.

[Mrs. Hermit]

That would feed our clan of 8 (teens doing farm work), plus visitors for just about every meal except breakfast; for a year. Spring, summer and fall were incredibly busy seasons! We would also freeze meat, veggies and fruits (2-3 freezers full), dehydrate some things, and we used root cellaring to keep fresh produce during the winter. We ate well, but we sure worked for it.

[Tussiemussies]

That would feed our clan of 8 (teens doing farm work), plus visitors for just about every meal except breakfast; for a year. Spring, summer and fall were incredibly busy seasons! We would also freeze meat, veggies and fruits (2-3 freezers full), dehydrate some things, and we used root cellaring to keep fresh produce during the winter. We ate well, but we sure worked for it.

Wow Mrs. Hermit, I'll say -- it does sound incredibly busy! Just wondering about your root cellar -- it is something I've always wanted to try. Can you tell me how you do it? I will start a new thread so we don't derail this one!

[CathyA]

I used to can everything. Then I had kids and it seemed too much of a chore, so I started freezing everything. I would like to get back to it. I have a weighted thing on the top of my canner. The problem I started running into all the time is that I'd lose too much liquid. I couldn't figure out why. The newer USDA times seemed to cook the heck out of everything. I have an electric stove, and it was really hard for me to control the "hisses" to be only 1-2 and minute. It would start hissing all the time, so I'd turn it down just a tad, and then it wouldn't hiss for a couple minutes. I always worried if it dropped to less than 1 hiss a minute, it wouldn't be safe. It drove me crazy. I love freezing things, but power outages in winter aren't uncommon, and I'd love to not depend so much on it.
I do like the taste of frozen things more than canned.

[Blackdog Lin]

Holy gee, Mrs. Hermit. I need to quit whining about my bean-picking. I am obviously an amateur in the food-growing-and-preservation game, whereas you have been an expert. How long ago was this?

Though I am coming along, slowly but surely.....

(And CathyA: I understand how you feel about the "hissing". We have a gas stove, and still worried ourselves to death over whether we were hissing too much, or too little, with our weighted pressure canner. Luckily by the third batch we've gotten comfortable on where to set the fire level to get the proper 3-4 hisses per minutes that the canner instructions recommend. Our first try was me going "turn it down, turn it down, it's hissing too often!" And DH running to the stove and turning it down to low, so that I went "there hasn't been a hiss in over 40 seconds, it's too low", and DH running to the stove again.....we were pretty hilarious our first couple of tries. It's gotten easier now that we've done it a few times.)

[Mrs. Hermit]

We moved from the farm eight years ago. I am glad you are enjoying canning, Blackdog Lin. I always liked both the process, as well as the feeling after it was all finished and you feel like you have actually accomplished something that will help your family. I miss it, but don't think I'll be going back to doing it.

Root cellaring: love to discuss it, but don't know how to start a thread (I am a bit technology-challenged, yet!).

[Blackdog Lin]

I'm curious, Mrs. Hermit, as to why you don't think you'll be doing any more canning. Is it an age thing? Or a having-a-large-garden-plot thing? Or something other?.....

Yeah, it's a very empowering feeling, putting up garden produce, even though it's very very hard work. I can see that as one gets older it gets too hard on the body to do. I'm 55, and I feel my age with both the garden work and the preserving work. I can imagine that in 10 more years I just wouldn't be able to physically do it.....

You have some old knowledge to impart to us, Mrs. Hermit, on gardening and preserving and root-cellaring: please figure out how to start your thread. I for one am very interested.....

[Tussiemussies]

I'll second that Mrs. H. You have a lot to share!

[Mrs. Hermit]

"I'm curious, Mrs. Hermit, as to why you don't think you'll be doing any more canning. Is it an age thing? Or a having-a-large-garden-plot thing? Or something other?....."


Because of health challenges, I doubt I'll be doing the large scale gardening like we used to. We have also moved to a different climate, which my lungs aren't appreciating, so I have to limit my outside work during the growing season here.

[toxcrusadr]

An old friend of mine used to make Dilly Beans, pickled green beans with lots of dill. They were great cold with a sandwich in the summer, just like eating a pickle.