Adventures in Canning

We have a plethora of green beans this year. With 3 teepee's of pole beans and 4 rows of bush beans... it would suffice to say that I have green beans coming out my ears. (See picture below).

This is me with green beans coming out my ears!

I should have known- the package tried to warn me. It said "very prolific". But I don't want them to go to waste... and they've been collecting on the counter all week while I've been at the fair. I got a pressure cooker for my bridal shower and it came with canning instructions. I've helped other people before- my grandma, Nancy (my boss) a couple years back- and it went smoothly then... how hard can it be?

Because she took pity on me, Sarah, my dear sweet sister-in-law came over to help. It's always easier when there is someone else. Nick cleaned the jars for me. Shortly after Sarah arrived he left to go wash his car. Our mission was simple...clean, snap, and can as many green beans as we could. I had a walmart bag and a paper sack - so we started with the walmart bag. After about an hour, we had them all snapped and decided to start canning. The pressure cooker can hold 3 - 1 pint jars at a time. We laughed when we'd filled them and realized it didn't even make a dent in the mound of green beans in the bowl. After we got the lid on the pressure canner- and read all the instructions to make sure we wouldn't end up with botulism this winter or blow up the house, we started the canning process. The instructions say to let them cook for 25 minutes. In the meantime, we decided we had more than enough for the 12 jars I had Nick clean, so we started to freeze some as well. The cooking proecess was done- so we followed the instructions and let the pressure drop "on it's own accord". About 30 minutes later, it was finally done, so I took all THREE of my cans out to cool. A few minutes later we heard a pop- I thought one of the lids hadn't sealed. Poop. What I didn't know, is the cans are supposed to pop as they cool... it's only a problem if they haven't sealed after they've cooled. Apparently I skipped that note in the Better Homes and Gardens Canning and Freezing section- my bible for the past couple of weeks.

We loaded a second batch into the pressure cooker and decided that was enough canning for one afternoon. We have decided that while the pressure cooker is nice for cooking... it's not real time effective when canning large amounts of green beans. Therefore, Nancy (my mother in law) and I are going in together on a larger pressure canner. Linda, my co-worker, has one that does 24 pints at a time. I want that one!! :)