Delicious Canned Green Beans

Have a bunch of green beans from your garden? If you need a solution to reap the benefits your harvest all year long, try canning them! **You HAVE to pressure cook green beans, so a canner is a necessity.**

• Sanitize your jars. We usually start with 7 quart jars, because that's how many our canner will hold. You can do this method in a dishwasher, or dip them in boiling water for a few minutes, making sure every part of the jar is covered.

• Snap the ends off. You'll want to snap off the stems of the green beans, and the other end is also optional if you find a tail on it from the blossom. Then, once you've stemmed all green beans, give them a good washing. We soak ours in a big bowl, swish them around to wash any residue off, and then drain the water. Rinse the beans. If you don't use them right away, they can be put in a gallon bag for up to a week in the fridge.

• Add water to canner. Use the canner recommendation on the instructions that came with your canner.

• Cut beans. You'll want to cut the beans into an appropriate size to maximize the space you have in the jar. Add the beans to the jar and pack down as much as you can.

• Sanitize jar lids. Add lids to boiling water for about 5 minutes to sanitize them before adding to the tops of the jars.

• Boil water. Fill a large stock pot 3/4 full of water and bring it to a boil. *OPTIONAL* Add canning salt. We add 1 tsp canning salt to each quart jar.

• Add water to jars. Carefully ladle the boiling water into the cold packed jars filling until all beans are covered.

• Wipe jar lip. To help the sealing process, make sure to wipe off any excess water on the lip of the jar.

• Add lids and rings. Using clean tongs, place lids on top of the jars. Make sure to only touch the top of the lid to avoid introducing bacteria to the inside. Screw on the rings until tightened, but not too tight. You want the air to be able to escape through the lid before it seals.

• Place jars into the canner. Using a jar grabber, carefully place each jar into the canner. Follow instructions for processing green beans, or use a verified recipe.

• Carefully remove jars. Once finished processing and your canner has released the pressure naturally, remove the lid and use the jar grabber to remove jars, and leave untouched for 24 hours before labeling each lid with the date and storing. Be sure to inspect each jar to make sure there is no water leaking from a broken or cracked jar, and monitor the lids to make sure each lid seals. You'll usually hear them "pop" when they've sealed. If you have a jar that does not seal, it must be refrigerated!

Notice the jar on the right appears to have a bunch of tiny bubbles on the top. While bubbles are normal in the canning process as air escapes through the lid, this was not normal and indicates that water had somehow leaked within the canner. To be safe, we refrigerated that jar and ate them a few days later. Always better to be safe, than sorry!