Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Beans (and more Beans)

One of my goals this year was to learn how to use (and not be afraid of) the pressure canner.
I think I accomplished half of that this last weekend...these things still slightly scare the beegeebers out of me.

The green bean plants have been pretty prolific so far this summer. We are harvesting from 2 beds of snap green beans; the pole beans are not producing yet and the other 3 beds of beans will be used as dried beans for winter soups.

Right out of the garden...

...washed and ready to go into the jars...

I used the cold pack method because beans are fairly tender
and will get soft quick enough once the cooking starts.

Added 1/2 teas. kosher salt and filled jars with boiling water.

Into the monster they go.
I love the fact that you can stack the pint jars
to get more into the pot; it actually holds 20 total.

Holding steady at 10 pounds of pressure.

Ta Da!.......11 pints of 'to be eaten this winter' green beans.

I've also frozen about 10 pounds of beans
but the freezer is filling up fast.......and it's a BIG freezer.
(more than one person has commented that we could fit a body in there....who are these people?)

5 comments:

MAYBELLINE said...

I'm canning the the San Joaquin as well. Any ideas for canning zucchini? I know I could solve world hunger by giving each person on Earth just 2 zucchini seeds.

Maureen said...

...tee hee :)

I actually don't have any ideas for canning zucchini....I was going to ask you. I mostly just grate and freeze the excess for breads in the winter but I never quite know what to do with all the water that accumulates when you defrost it. I've always just drained it off but then it seems like the breads etc. would be slightly dryer....any ideas?

MAYBELLINE said...

I've read that I need a pressure cooker to can zucchini. With that, I guess I'll continue to bring my bounty to work and make bread, cakes, and muffins for the freezer.

MommaofMany said...

One of the best ways to can zucchini is making Mock Pineapple. Here's the recipe: http://feedingthecrew.blogspot.com/2011/08/mock-pinapple.html

You use it in bread, muffins, cakes, etc. Almost any recipe that calls for crushed pineapple will work with mock, too!

MommaofMany said...

Oh, and Zucchini Salsa: http://feedingthecrew.blogspot.com/2010/09/zucchini-salsa-tutorial.html My favorite farmer's market farmers loves this one.