Canning Green Beans

For Christmas this past year I received a pressure canner….and I LOVE it! It’s been hanging out on my stove/counter for the past few weeks since I keep needing it! So far I have canned 24 pints of green beans and 12 pints of pickled banana peppers. I’m hoping to can a bunch of tomato sauce/juice/salsa if the stupid grasshoppers quite eating the tomatoes! So we’ll see how that goes!

I just picked two more buckets full of green beans tonight and that was only from not quite half the plants! Those green bean plants are sure keeping me busy, but it will be so nice to have them handy throughout the winter!

Here are the steps that I take with my Presto pressure canner. Every brand is different, so please read your directions carefully since they may very from mine!

Start by rinsing the beans and cutting any bad spots off.

Then snap them into your desired lengths. I do about 1-1.5 inch lengths.

Bring a pot of water to a boil to use to fill the jars.

Also, start heating 3 quarts of water in the pressure canner. In this picture, the lid is just sitting on top of the pot to help it warm up.

Also bring a smaller pot of water to boil with the lids and rings in it.

I don’t have a picture of this, but I always run my jars through the dishwasher one complete cycle to get them good and clean and then I start a second cycle (without detergent) and pull them out when they are nice and hot. Then I fill the jars and leave about 1 inch of head space. Really shake the jars so you can get as many green beans in there as possible. You can see in the background of the picture below the beans that are already canned.

Next, take some of the boiling water and pour into the jars. Leave about 1/2 inch head space.

Then place a hot lid on top and then a ring. Screw on until finger tight.

Then place them into the boiling water in the pressure canner.

Place the lid on top and turn it until it is locked in place.

Next let the stem escape from the vent for 10 minutes.

Then place the 10 pound pressure regulator on the vent.

As soon as the air vent/cover lock pops up and the weights start rocking, set your timer for 20 minutes. Make sure that the weights aren’t rocking too hard. I turned my heat down to about 7 out of 10.

Once the 20 minutes are up, remove from heat. DO NOT TAKE THE WEIGHTS OFF OR TRY TO REMOVE THE LID AT THIS TIME!!! You will need to let it cool by itself until the air vent/cover lock goes down.