In the past several people have asked questions about canning vegatables so here is some information that may be helpful. Today I am canning Blue Lake Bush Beans. It is not very hard you pic the beans, snap the beans, cook them in a pot with some seasoning as usually, salt, pepper, strip of bacon or a piece of ham for about 2 hours or until the beans are cooked. I sometimes like to put a small potato in with the beans the potato cooks into mush and gives the beans a good flavor and the liquid is like gravy. After the beans are cooked turn off the heat. Let them set while you wash the jars and get the pressure cooker ready. Fill the jars full of beans pack them tight if you want. Leave 1/2 inch of air space at the top of each jar. Pour the bean liquid into each jar to fill the jars up leaving 1/2 inch air space at the top of each jar. If you don't have enough liquid in the cooking pot to fill all the jars then fill the jars with water. My Canning Book says add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each jar but I never do that I cook all the beans and season them the way we like them and that is the way they all get canned. Now that the beans are in the jars make sure the top surface of each jar is clean. Wipe it clean with a paper towel. Put a seal on the top of each jar then screw on the rings. Place the jars in the canner and fill it with tap water so the water is about 1/2 inch above the top of the jars. Attach the canner top and the canner pressure weight. Turn on the heat, in about 30 minutes pressure will build up and weight will start releasing steam. Turn down the heat a little just enough heat is needed to keep the pressure up to 15 psi. Cook pints 20 minutes and quarts 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool off about an hour. Remove the canner top and let it cool another hour. Remove the jars from the room temperature water. Remove the rings and use them again on the next jars. Wash the top of each lid and write the date on them. Beans are finished and they will last for many years. We try to eat the old ones first if we can we still have 65 pints of beans from 2008, 7 pints from 2007 and 2 pints from 2006. Just open, heat and eat they are already cooked and seasoned. You can season them several ways so they are not all the same, add carrots, potatoes, other beans, onions, what ever you like.
https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/mikeweaver/Beans.jpg?t=1246469219[img]
https://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h292/mikeweaver/Canning.jpg?t=1246469275[/img]
Next week I will need to can tomatoes. If anyone is interested in learning how to can tomatoes I will post that too only if someone is interested. It is not much different than beans.
I picked Blackberries yesterday and made the first Blackberry Cobler of the season. It was gone in about 10 minutes so I didn't get any pics. We ate it hot out of the oven with a scoop of French Vanilla Ice Cream.
I have 2 pressure cookers one will do 5 pints the other will do 9 pints or 7 quarts. You can do water bath canning too the only difference is you have to boil the jars full of food about 2 times longer so that adds time to the job.
