Fresh, garden-grown green beans were always a staple in my home growing up. I remember many mornings waking early and my grandma would have sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast with a cold glass of orange juice before heading outside to pick beans. It would be around 11 AM and we would take a break to get lunch and watch “The Price is Right” (my pap’s favorite afternoon show) while snapping beans so grandma could get them in the pressure cooker.  There are so many great memories of picking rows and rows of beans!  Another vivid memory was hearing the pressure cooker and watching my grandma in the kitchen prepping the jars and placing them in the cooker.

From watching the seed go into the soil to watching them go into the jars to be sealed for our future meals.  In this article, I would like to invite you to our kitchen and show you how we can green beans!

This year we decided to plant Blue Lake Green Beans. We were very impressed with these beans!

What You Will Need to Begin

(Click for links)

–Pressure Canner
-Green Beans (Enough for 7+ Quarts)
-Quart Jars (Mason Jars)
-Lids and Bands
-Home Canning Utensil Kit
-Saucepan
-Large pot to boil 7+ Quarts of Water
-Ladle
-Clean Dish Cloth & Dish Towel
-Oven Mits
-Labels (Optional) & Sharpie
-Salt, Onion, Garlic (Optional)

Let’s Begin!

***Before beginning, please familiarize yourself with the parts of the pressure canner and read the instructions included with the canner.***

1.)  Prepare Beans
Pick and snap the fresh, crisp green beans, and eliminate all the worms, rotten spots, and tips.

2.)  Wash your jars, lids, and rings.
Make sure you use hot water and soap. Rinse well!
Examine jars for any nicks, cracks, bad rims, or sharp edges that could prevent a proper seal or breakage. Examine canning lids and rims so they are free of dents and the sealing compound (wax) is even and complete.

3.)  Prepare Lids & Rings
Start preparing the water and lids/rings.  Submerge rings & lids in a saucepan of simmering water (180°F) *DO NOT BOIL LIDS!

4.)  Prepare the Canner
Prep your canner by adding 2 to 3 inches of water in the bottom (ours has a mark inside where you fill the water too). Allow hot water to simmer around (180ºF) until ready to add the filled jars.

5.) Boil 7+ Quarts of Water
Start boiling 7+ Quarts of water in a separate pot. You’ll need this for step 10.

6.)  Wash Your Beans
Wash the beans that you’ve snapped in a sterilized sink to get rid of any chemicals (we do not use pesticides, however, some places may if you are not sure) and dirt they’re carrying. I usually clean mine with several changes of water before packing the jars.

7.) Drain Beans & Pack
Drain your beans (I use a spider skimmer to help with this). Pack the jars with green beans, leaving ample room at the top for headspace (~ 1″ for a quart jar).

9.)  Add Salt
Add 1/2 – 1 tsp of salt to each quart of beans.
At this step, you can add onions and garlic also. This year we used fresh green onions from our garden.

10.) Ladle Hot Water into Jars
Carefully ladle the boiling water we started in step 5 over the beans while leaving ~1″ headspace (See in Video Below). Fill the jars up to the bottom of the neck with boiling water (this is called raw packing).  Use the Jar funnel in your kit to help. This will help make packing easier!

11.) Remove Air Bubbles
Remove air bubbles with the air removal tool in your kit.
Slide the tool between the green beans and the jar, pressing back gently on the beans to release any air bubbles. Repeat this 2-3 times inside the jar for each of the jars.  Don’t press down too hard; otherwise, the jar will crack, or the tool will break.

12.) Wipe Off the Rims
Wipe off any debris on the rim of the jar using a clean damp dishcloth (this could prevent the jar from sealing later if you skip this step).

13.) Add Lid and Ring
Using your magnetic lid wand in your kit, remove a lid and ring for each jar from the saucepan where they’ve been warming up and place them on the jars. Place the lid on the lip of each jar to where it seals the wax compound on each rim. Add each ring to the jar making sure not to overtighten (fingertip tight).

14.)  Place Jars in Canner
Using your Jar lifter from your kit, place jars in the canner according to your particular canner’s instructions.  Our canner allows for 7 Quart jars to be processed at once.

15.) Placthe e Lid and Refer to your Pressure Cooker Manual
Place the pressure cooker lid onto your canner and lock it in place.  Be sure you double-check that your lid is locked in place! Follow the steps in your canner manual to begin your canning process.

16.) Prevent Botulism
To prevent botulism (pretty much canning’s worst-case scenario), process the jars at the stated pressure for the stated amount of time.  Botulism thrives in no-air, low-salt, low-acidity environments, and messing up here greatly increases the chances of this happening.  For our canner, we must process quart jars between 10 & 11 pounds of pressure for 25 minutes.  Note:  It’s not 25 minutes from when you turn the burner on. It’s 25 minutes from when the canner reaches 10 pounds of pressure.

(Image is from the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving Book)

17.)  Be Patient and Wait
After the required time has elapsed, turn the burner off and let the pressure bleed off naturally until the gauge reaches 0.  Don’t rush this by unsealing the lid in any way. Otherwise, the water in the jars will be forced out of the jar.  Also, stay close to the canner to listen for when the canner has fully depressurized.  Processing 7-quart jars usually requires about an hour to completely depressurize.  You need to remove the jars immediately after depressurization to further reduce the chances of botulism or contamination.  The jars need to cool quickly, and the high heat inside the canner does not allow this.

*To remove the lid, raise the canner lid toward you so the steam will escape opposite in your direction. The steam is VERY hot, so be careful! You can use dishcloths or oven mitts for this step.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW6K7PO-sLE
When the pressure starts to build inside the canner, this will pop up and seal so the pressure can build. When the pressure is completely gone, the lock will drop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDyxVTfSx60
This is when you can safely remove the canner lid. When the vent lock drops and the gauge is on zero.  For us, the gauge often stays at zero for 15 minutes before the lock drops.

18.)  Wait for the PING! 
Let the jars sit for 6+ hours and cool off.  When they’re thoroughly cooled, check the seals on the jars.  We do this in 2 ways, first, by checking that the center of the lid has been vacuumed in, and second by gently pulling on the lid without the ring.  If the center of the lid is popped out or it pushes in when you touch it, the seal is not good.  Also, the jar must be reprocessed if the lid pulls off with light pressure.  If you have to reprocess, ensure the jar isn’t damaged, and then clean the ring and process it again with another batch using a new lid.  The necks of some jars are imperfect, and you may need to use a new jar.

19.)  Label your Jars
Label what you’ve canned, the ingredients (if you added garlic, onions, etc…), and the date it was canned.  This way, you know exactly what you have and when you should discard it (12 – 18 months, depending on the product).

20.) Store jars in a cool place!

For more tips on Canning, I highly recommend this book!

To read more, check out the USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning for the latest safety standards.