Thursday, August 7, 2014

Adventures in pressure canning: Today's Romano green beans...

first time with the new pressure canner.  It was fun.

We'll talk about Odumbo being an a-hole some other time. 

After finishing weeding the veggie garden, I picked two big bowls of Romano style green beans.  Roma's are a large flat bean, very tender with lots of flavor.  To cook, I steam them for a very short time, maybe 5 minutes, slather on the ghee, salt, and pepper.   Like eating candy!

But these critters were headed to my new pressure canner.  I had the gauge checked at the Kootenai County Extension office on Tuesday, and I'm doubly glad I did.  The gauge was a pound shy, so not only do I have to add one pound pressure for altitude, I also have to add an additional pound since it is slightly off.  This is not unusual, even for a brand new canner.

Have your gauge checked every year!!

The beans - fresh from the garden:


The new Presto 23 qt canner:



Beans packed with one teaspoon canning salt per jar waiting for their hot water and heading for canner:



Canner was first vented for 10 minutes, then brought to pressure (13 lbs) and processed for 25 minutes.  I was surprised to see how little heat it took to maintain the correct pressure. 

After removing the jars from the canner, you could hear the ping of the lids sealing all the way into my office on the opposite end of the house.  A glorious sound!

And here they are:




Seven quarts of garden fresh Roma beans.

Cost?

Not counting jars, since they will be used over and over, it cost the price of a package of seeds, about $1.97, and some water.  The sunshine was free.

I expect to have at least another seven quarts before summer is over. 

The reward?

Eating fresh canned Roma beans in the middle of winter.  




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