WHAT ARE YOU CANNING TODAY?

[PatriciaPNW]

Now I have another reason to pressure can. A friends husband gave me a jar of water bath canned Blue Lake green beans after I had really enjoyed some at lunch fresh from their garden. Tiny garden in Seattle but clever people - beans etc growing up their alley fence. I boiled them up tonight and was surprised by the vinegar taste and smell. Strong but I’m eating them. Was that to make it acidic enough to water bath can? Yikes.

 

[Mini Horses]

Any chance they were pickled beans??

Ya'll can do as you please but I will be around until 105. That means have another 31 + yrs to go. And I plan to keep going at it, at least now I do, until the day arrives.

 

[PatriciaPNW]

Pickled beans - I will research that! There was what seemed like thick white radish slices (??) in addition to the vinegar. I like your life expectancy prediction Mini but I remember my great aunt saying it was all downhill after 100! (Tongue in cheek - she had a wonderful outlook).

 

[Hinotori]

Pickled green beans have always been a thing in my family. I remember visiting my great grandpa in Portland and he'd always have dilly beans. No one has his recipe unfortunately.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Look up a recipe for Dilly Beans. The white slices you found were most likely garlic. You can make them mild or wildly spicy by adding varied amounts of red pepper flakes. I LOVE dilly beans!!!

Yes, if those beans were HWB processed they would have been pickled. Beans are low acid, therefore must be pressure canned. I NEVER liked canned beans until I canned my own. HUGE difference in the flavor and quality.

Now, for variety: Blue Lake is good. BUT!!!!! If you want THE BEST (IMHO) get some Fortex. They are a french filet pole bean. They are stringless, and remain tender up to 10" in length.

 

[Britesea]

Just got me some Fortex beans... looking forward to trying them in the garden next summer.

I actually prefer home canned green beans to frozen, which was always considered the only way when I was growing up. I can them without salt, and they taste more like fresh to me. We also love dilly beans, and dilled carrots too. I want to try fermenting them too.

 

[Mini Horses]

Canned green beans are much better than frozen, as they don't "dry out".

Yep, grandma could only waterbath food, no pressure canners back then. Mostly hers weren't spiced up as I recall, simply vinegary like a sweet pickle...without sugar best I can describe it. Sometimes she'd dump, strain & soak them to lessen the vinegar.. but it was there. Add some bacon drippings when cooking. They used green tomatoes in the top of the corn, water bathed (like BeeKissed has said).

Salt & vinegar were real preservation methods. Salt in cabbage for kraut, on hams to cure. Root veggies were left in ground and covered, as long as possible., then into the cellar or into a clamp dug into dirt, lined and covered...generally into a hillside to help protect from wild game. Some things were sundried &/or solar or oven dried. No "dehydrators" except the natural ones. These methods aren't new.

Guess now I better order up some Fortex.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I found the secret to good frozen green beans. Vac seal them. Then, when it's time to cook them: break up the lump a bit and dump them into rapidly boiling water. When I did it this way, I was pleased with end result. Last year, every time I processed beans: I would fill my jars and load them into the pressure canner. Then, I would prep and blanch the rest of the beans and vac seal them. IIRC, I laid them out on cookie sheets and froze them, THEN vac sealed. This made a good use of my time b/c while the jars were processing, I could finish the rest of the batch for the freezer, and get it all cleaned up before the jars were done.

 

[PatriciaPNW]

“vinegary like a sweet pickle...without sugar“ THAT is the best description of those green beans! No dill or pepper flakes - just sharp smell and taste of a vinegar brine and what I will agree to as garlic slices. It’s fine - the texture was good and the beans themselves weren’t vinegary. I do think this was an end run on pressure canning! Anywho, it has strengthened my resolve to set aside time to pressure can home grown veggies I can pour into a stew or soup. And I will look for Fortex this year on this advice - Thank You.

 

[baymule]

Anywho, it has strengthened my resolve to set aside time to pressure can home grown veggies I can pour into a stew or soup. And I will look for Fortex this year on this advice - Thank You.

I sometimes can tomatoes with everything that is ready in the garden thrown in, to make a vegetable soup.