Canning beans

I finally got some beans out of my garden, the lovely "Dragontongue" beans that are yellow and purple and have no strings.  Last summer was the first time I grew these beans, and they quickly became a favorite due to their meaty heft and good texture that doesn't get woody when the beans get big.  I didn't have quite enough beans to make it worthwhile to get out the canner so I bought some nice green beans from my Amish neighbors and set to work. 

I much prefer "frenched" beans to cut beans, so after thoroughly washing the beans and cutting off the ends, I run them all through the frencher.  I have this giant colander that I feed the beans into from the frencher, making it easier to rinse off all the bits of seeds.

(Sometimes the best things can happen simply from being in the right place at the right time.  I was given this colander and quite a few other kitchen gadgets just because I was helping out a woman who was downsizing her home prior to moving.  Fun!)

After the beans are all frenched and rinsed, I stuff the jars.  I pack them in pretty tightly but make sure to leave a one inch headspace.  I cover the beans with hot water and use a plastic knife or wooden handle to make sure the air bubbles are all out.

Then I use a clean, damp cloth to make sure the tops of the jars are clean.

Then it's time to put the lids on, that I've had simmering in warm water to slightly soften the rubber sealant.

I love this little gadget!  Very simple, just a magnet at the end of a plastic handle, but it makes it so easy to get the lid out of the hot water without burning my fingers, or risk scratching the lid with tongs.  I tighten the rings just finger tight, and load the jars into the pressure canner.

The canner has a locking lid with flanges that fit like a tongue and groove when I twist the lid shut.

Not locked

Locked and ready to go

I follow the instructions in the canner manual for venting the steam and monitoring the heat so that the weight is happily jiggling, and process the beans (pint jars) for twenty minutes at ten pounds of pressure.  It can all be a lot of work, but to me it's worth it to have fresh, high quality beans preserved without chemicals and packed in glass instead of cans that may have liners that leach compounds into the food.  There's a wonderful sense of accomplishment, looking at a pantry shelf stocked with food I've preserved!

Kernels and Kablooey

Summer has flown by with swift, trembling wings and here we are on the cusp of Autumn.  Time to be harvesting, canning, drying, and putting food by for the winter.  My poor garden was a victim of drought, weeds, and lack of time, so my harvest has been meager.  Happily, there's a large Amish farm just down the road that does a good business in seasonal produce, and I've been able to supplement my harvest.  If I can't grow it myself, at least I know where it came from!

When traveling to the city I also pass a very large commercial potato farm, where thrifty folks can pull in and get fifty pounds of fresh potatoes for $7.00.  I sliced and dried half of that, and cubed and canned the rest.  I was feeling pretty smug when, after filling one pressure canner with quart jars full of potatoes and starting the timer, I still had another canner to fill.  I figured to be done in half the time!

Alas, it is true, "pride goeth before the fall"....when the timer went off for the second canner, the first was still on high, as the weight had not resumed jiggling (or like a friend says, giggling) after the initial venting and start up process.  Well, it appears that the weight wasn't happy because the pressure was too high and the burner was too high and the temperature was too high and everything built right up and up and up and KABLOOEY!  ...that endless yet instant moment of heart stoppage when my mind tried to rationalize the sudden presence of a jet engine in my kitchen as the safety plug burst open and released a tremendous, hissing, screaming plume of steam.  Tiny metal bits from the plug melded themselves into the bottom of my stove hood and the whole room filled with a steam that reeked of burnt potatoes.

Double Creature Feature (before the kablooey)

Sigh.  So now I'm back down to one canner until I replace the safety plug. I am grateful that the safety device worked as it should have; the alternative is terrible to contemplate!

I did get three dozen ears of corn out of my garden, and decided to can it all up.  The ears weren't very big so it didn't take long to get them shucked and clean.  I've tried a lot of ways to get the kernels off the cob, and through trial and error found that using an electric knife works the best.  I put an upside down jar in the middle of a bowl, balance the cob on it, and buzz away, letting the kernels fall into the bowl.  This keeps them from flying all over the room and sticking to my eyebrows.  I pack the kernels into hot, clean pint jars and process them in my single solitary pressure canner for the full 55 minutes.  I've finally gotten pretty good at timing the cool down period, so as not to lose liquid out of the jars, but also to get ready for processing the next batch as quickly as possible.

Goes quick with the electric knife

Most of the kernels stay in the bowl

So far I have just under 20 pints each of corn and beans, and about two dozen quarts of potatoes; along with several quart jars of dried peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes.  Not much of a harvest, to be sure, but it's better than nothing, and I'm not done yet!  The adventure continues.....hopefully without anymore kablooey.

Until next time, God bless each of you.

Ten Pounds of Pressure

The food co-op had boneless chicken breasts on sale this week, so it was time to get out the Creature and have another go at pressure canning.  This time I did it a little differently and did not cook the chicken, but raw packed it instead.  It took longer than expected to get it cut up and in the jars; I'm convinced it's time to spend a bit of money on a decent cutting board.  This whole cutting stuff up on a paper plate thing is getting old fast.  I filled each jar with bite-sized chunks of raw chicken, leaving 1" of head space, and got them in the canner.  I always add a splash of vinegar to keep the minerals in my well from leaving a white film on my jars, so got that in with the required amount of water, and turned up the gas.  It's not quite so scary now when the Creature hisses and spits and whistles as it comes up to temperature, thought it's still enough to drive the dawg into hiding.  I was feeling pretty good as it merrily rattled along, thinking this isn't so hard, after all, and the seventy-five minutes went by fairly quickly as I did some chores around the house.  After the timer went off, I let the canner cool for about 30 minutes, then took the lid off and waited another five minutes before pulling the jars out.  It was a bit of a shock to pull up on one of the jars, only to have the bottom of the jar and all the chicken stay in the pot.  Uff da!  New discovery for today:  if I have a bit of an issue getting the empty jars off the high closet shelf, and one of them bounces off my head, hits the stool I'm standing on, and rolls down the hallway, don't use it for canning anymore!  (And no, I'm not entertaining any speculation as to which impact actually damaged the jar!)  The jar stayed in place while the canner was heating; the bottom of the jar simply separated from the rest in one piece when I tried to lift it out.  Thankfully there's no glass shards, the chicken was salvageable and is now in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.  Of course the bottle of lemon juice fell on my foot when I opened the fridge, and all this after a jar of jelly jumped off the pantry shelf and hit my ankle bone while I was trying to get the Creature down from it's nest.  Wasn't the full moon last night?

Call it bravery or foolishness, but despite all the mishaps I loaded the canner with the second batch of jars and put it on the stove again.  It's chortling away as I type; what the outcome will be this time I hardly care to guess, but I'm really hoping for an uneventful end to the evening and eleven pints of canned chicken ready for the pantry.

Until next time, may the Good Lord bless you and keep you.

Ooops.