Canning Green Beans 101

Today I spent a fun day with Grannie learning how to can beans. Every summer for as long as I can remember and even before that, my grandmother has canned vegetables from her garden. Over the years, her garden has gotten a little smaller and now she only cans green beans. All of her grandchildren prize the quart-size jars of beans that we receive at the end of summer and then again at Christmas. This is one way she shows how much she loves us.

It was such a neat experience learning how to can from her. Thanks to my fancy flat phone, I was able to video her explaining the various steps. My desire is try my hand at canning many foods, but starting with green beans was definitely a good idea. Grannie is well versed in how to do it, and I learned so much with her. We began in the garden picking the beans, then we broke them, washed them, put them in jars, and, finally, canned them. The following photos document our day. Stay tuned for canning recipes…

Grannie in her bean patch

This is enough beans for 14 quarts.

Grannie washes her beans seven times
before canning them.

Once the beans are packed into the jars,
top each with 1 tsp. of salt and
boiling water.

Grannie uses a pressure cooker to can her beans,
but you can do this using the boiling water method as well.