Canning - Green Beans to start
 

My dad gave me a 5-gallon bucket almost full of green beans. He's 95 and his garden is one of his best pleasures. Anyway, I snapped all those beans and canned them last night. I got 7 pints, 6 quarts, and a large "mess" to have for supper tomorrow night.

I love to can our garden bounty. We didn't plant beans (since Daddy did) but have cabbage, onions, tomatoes, squash, 3 kinds peppers, radishes, lettuce, and cucumbers. I can my own tomato salsa plus Ro-tel-like tomatoes with jalapenos. We'll make pickles when the cucumbers are ready.

With all the rain we've had this year, the cabbages have really grown. My husband gave my sister a cabbage that weighed 10 pounds! She used it for herself plus her two grown children and their families, and still had some left. Last year our cabbages grew so big we learned to make sauerkraut. We made 25 pounds and it turned out very well.

Now we're anticipating putting up sweet corn. We're going to try that in vacuum freezer bags this year. We'll blanch the ears, cut off the corn, and pack it into the bags. Easy-peasy!

There's nothing like home canned goodness!

I am so jealous. I quit canning when I no longer had access to local growers and the prices went sky high. We do have 2 apple trees so I do still can applesauce. There is nothing better than home canned jams too. We just don't eat enough of it anymore - when I do get the urge I give more than half away.

My niece lives in central WA and I love to visit in the summer with all the fresh fruit and vegetables. Their farmers market is fantastic!

The best frozen corn I ever ate was frozen shucks & all. When ready to cook, was microwaved shucks & all, still on the cob. For the life of me, I cannot remember how long I cooked it in the microwave. That last bunch I did this way was over 5 years ago, and I've never been sharp on details when it comes to memory.

You are making me hungry with tales of your garden. Your words paint a beautiful picture.

Wow, I only just got my little garden tilled and haven't planted yet. On the sweet corn... I freeze it every year and don't even bother blanching. I just cut it off the cob and put the kernels in ziplock bags. It is as good as it was fresh picked!

I also love canning. I've got a "summer kitchen" that is now in the corner of the building with my long arm (summer kitchen was there first LOL!)

I do both water bath and pressure canning, so I put all sorts of food. My DH has a reaction to sufites and they are commonly added as a preservative to a lot of store bought foods.

I prefer corn frozen, but love canned green beans. I also can fruit in very light syrup, and then I can dump a few jars worth into a pan, and a crisp topping and have a yummy desert in short order.

We cook our corn with the shucks for 5 minutes in the microwave. Hope this helps.

my corn is only 6 inches tall in the garden.......long wait

Be careful canning green beans. My mother told me that they can easily get spoiled, probably because lack of acidity. Freezing doesn't have the same concern.

I will be planting my pole beans this week end, want to can dilly beans in place of dill pickles.
Jan