Canning Basics – How to Can Green Beans

If you’re just learning canning and preserving, it can be overwhelming to say the least.  It’s always better to start with something that may be easier than a harder, more complicated canning recipe and it doesn’t get much easier than home canned green beans. Canning green beans is actually one of the easiest things you can do to start learning how to can! Not only that and the fact that they’re extremely budget friendly, but they taste so much better than canned green beans that you get at the store and they’re much healthier too! They’ve got much less sodium and far less preservatives in them than the stuff you buy at the store.

Canning and Preserving Green Beans

Even if you don’t garden, you can still preserve green beans for when they are out of season. Farmers markets are an awesome place to find great deals on fresh produce and vegetables so if you find one that you like, you can pick up the beans that you’ll need there and preserve them at home. You could also buy them from your local grocery store while they’re in season and can them for when they’re out of season. Just be sure to watch for good sale prices on them before you buy so that you save as much as possible.

Green beans are a low acid food which means that they can ONLY be processed safely in a pressure canner. Please don’t try canning them in a water bath. It is better to be safe than sorry and yes, I know, your Grandma may have water bathed green beans for four decades, but as I said. It is better to be safe than sorry.

You will need:

• Fresh Green Beans
• Canning Salt
• Canning jars, lids and rings
• Pressure Canner

Sterilize Your Jars, lids and rings before you begin. Be sure to keep your lids and rings in hot water so that they stay sterilized and so that the seals on your lids can soften up the way they will need to for a proper seal.

Once you’ve got your green beans picked, wash them well then remove the strings.

Cut off the top and bottom pieces of the beans and throw away. Then, cut them into bite sized pieces.

Fill the canning jars that you sterilized earlier with beans making sure that you leave around an inch of head space. You can add 1 teaspoon of canning salt if you’d like for flavor. It doesn’t serve any other purpose than flavor.

Fill each jar with boiling water then add lids and tighten rings. Be sure not to tighten the rings too much. You want them to be fingertip tight.

Fill your pressure canner according to the manufacturer instructions, place the lid on and bring water to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, allow it to vent at ZERO pounds for 5 minutes then using the table below to determine pounds of pressure for your altitude (feet above sea level), process for 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts. If you don’t know your altitude, a quick Google search can help you figure it out.

ALTITUDE                  DIAL GAUGE              WEIGHTED GAUGE

0-1000                        11lbs                                10lbs

1001-2000                 11lbs                                15lbs

2001-4000                 12lbs                                15lbs

4001-6000                 13lbs                                15lbs

6001-8000                 14lbs                                15lbs

8001-10000               15lbs                                15lbs

Once the jars are processed for the proper amount of time, let your canner de-pressurize according to what the manufacturer says, remove jars and let cool. As your jars cool, the lids will ping into place and you’ll know they are sealed! Refrigerate any jars that didn’t seal and use within a few days.