Canned Green Beans

Jump to Recipe

My how the summer is flying by! I can’t believe it’s almost over. Fall will be here in about a month and school starts in just a couple weeks! Our garden this year has been a great success. We’ve had a little trouble growing green beans in the past which has always been annoying because it’s a favorite vegetable in our house! Mostly the problem was due to the pesky cucumber beetles but our soil has needed some work as well.

This last fall and spring my husband did a bunch of work to make the soil better for growing things and it worked! So far we have canned 70 quarts of green beans and we still have more to go. I’m so thankful for it!

I love eating steamed or sauteed green beans fresh from the garden but everyone else in the house likes canned green beans so I like to have plenty on hand. I think we will be able to make it to next season with what we have done so far!

You start off with a bunch of fresh green beans. This wasn’t even all of the green beans I picked that particular day. So many green beans! 🙂 I’ve figured out it takes about a pound of green beans per quart you want to can.

You’ll want to snap off the ends and then snap them into your desired length.

I like to weed out any that are a bit floppy or hollow. I didn’t get a picture of a hollow one but here is what I like to see as I am snapping away…

After I had all the beans snapped I started a large pot of water on the stove to get it boiling. I filled this pot up about 2/3 of the way and it was just right for 7 quarts with a little left over.

While the water was heating up I rinsed all the beans and then filled clean mason jars with them. I added 1 teaspoon of sea salt to each quart jar. Once the water was at a rolling boil I removed it from the heat and ladled it into the jars.

Next, I wiped the rims of the jars off with a paper towel and added a lid and ring to each jar.

Then place the prepared jars into a pressure canner. Follow the manufacturers instructions for pressure canning the green beans. My pressure canner is a 23 QT size. The instructions state pouring 3 quarts of water in it and then you place your prepared jars on the rack in the canner and lock the lid in place. Heat over med-high heat until there is a steady stream of steam is coming out of the vent pipe. Let it continue to release steam for 10 minutes and then place the pressure regulator over the vent pipe and bring the pressure up to 11 lbs. Keep it at 11 lbs, adjusting the heat to keep it there, for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts. After they are finished processing turn off the heat and let the pressure drop on it’s own. Once the pressure gauge is at “0” and air vent/cover lock have dropped. Remove the pressure regulator and let canner cool for another 10 minutes. After that you can carefully remove the lid off the canner and remove the jars. Leave jars until they have completely cooled to the touch and check seals. If any of the lids pop when pressed place in the fridge and use within a week. All of the jars that sealed you can rinse, remove the rings, and label them for storage.

Canning green beans is a bit time consuming but each part of the process is easy so I hope you give it a try sometime!