Green Bean Harvest and Canning

It's that time of year again, when preserving food begins. Yes, I had my first crop of Green Beans from my container garden. Very exciting that it has worked out so well. It seemed like there was less damage to the beans from bugs or laying on the ground. Nice, crisp, beautiful beans - our favorite! It was nice to move the pots around to get all the beans picked. Look at all those yummy beans!

Then we took off the ends and snapped them up. Washed the beans really good, washed and prepared the bottles and the pressure cooker.

I washed 12 bottles and had enough beans to fill them all. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each jar.

Fill the jars with boiling water and run a knife down the sides to get all the air bubbles out.

Boil the canning lids for a few minutes and put on the jars and tighten with the ring.

Add to the pressure cooker. Since I had 12 bottles, I did 6 at a time.

Use 10 pounds of pressure on the pressure cooker.

Since it was a VERY hot day - record 106 degrees.... I did not want to process this in the house. I decided to do it outside on the side burner of my barbecue grill. This is the first time I have tried this and I'm sold....I will process food this way from now on. I really think the sun helped in the process - solar rays hitting the shiny metal. The process seemed a LOT shorter to jiggle the 10 pound pressure. After it starts jiggling you process it for 20 minutes.

It was wonderful to get 12 bottles done on my first harvest. I am confidant it will be a great year for beans in my container garden. I also have TONS of tomatoes - just waiting for them to ripen. Yippee!

Saturday I do a lot of washing too. I always change the sheets on the bed and wash them every Saturday. I didn't want to heat up my house because of the warm day - so I pulled out my retractable clothes line and dried my clothes.

A trick I read several years ago was to hang the clothing upside down. To me, it seems like there are less wrinkles drying this way and the top of the pants, the arms on the shirts seem to dry quicker blowing in a gentle breeze.

I love the smell of clothing hanging on a line. mmmmmm

Brady kept teasing me that I was getting old - with all of the old way of drying clothes, washing dishes by hand - because I didn't want to turn on the dishwasher - and that heat.

It worked too - because the air conditioner was able to keep the house cool on a 106 degree day. I love air conditioners.... and I'm going to use it - no matter what "green freaks" think or the government does with their cap and trade bill.... It's my house and I'll keep it cool!! (sorry about the rant ;-) *wink!