First Canning Run is Full of Beans

My goal this week has been to plunge into getting some food put up. By "put up", I mean using ways to preserve food that don't rely on a freezer. This choice is for several reasons . . .

We don't have a big freezer (just what's part of the fridge)

Power outages are common in this part of the country - often lasting for days and weeks

We are trying to learn to use less of everything - preserving in the freezer is just an ongoing energy drain

and

I am curious to explore older ways of preserving food - after all, freezers haven't been around that long!

Canning - both water bath and pressure - is the next most energy hogging way to preserve food, but at least it is just the canning and not the storing that is using the energy. Plus, it is really damn cold outside and the pressure canner on the stove is creating lots of nice warmth in the kitchen.

So, I did a lot of research - both online and in books - and decided to conquer my fear of my new pressure canner.

The pressure canner is one of the items that I opted to buy new due to the fact that if it malfunctioned, it could kill me dead.

BOOM

Although this piece of equipment was new, I did 2 full test runs with only water in it. Somehow, the thought of flying glass and food added an extra element of danger that I couldn't face.

Even then, I have to tell you that the first time this bad boy got up to 15+ lbs. of pressure, I ran into the bedroom and peeked at it from around the corner! I have never done this kind of pressure cooking, never seen it done, never even watched a video about it - wasn't sure what it would sound like. Once I got the canner settled down to the needed 10 lbs. of pressure and had the correct rocker weight installed, the noise wasn't at all bad.

I wanted something easy for my first attempt and found a great no-thinking way to put up pinto beans. Becca at The Beginning Farmer's Wife uses this method.

Basically, I measured dried pintos into dry pint jars and added filtered water to soak them overnight.

This morning, I dumped that water, filled the jars with more filtered hot water and put a scalded lid and ring on them.

One of the most useful tools involved in this process is a simple magnet attached to a stick that is used to fish hot lids out of scalding water.

The canner holds 16 wide mouth pint jars in a double stack.

75 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure later and I had these beauties . . .

That's a bunch of beans - about 5 lbs. dried. According to Becca, each of these jars will yield about 2 regular cans worth of beans. Mostly because these are basically all beans, instead of half a can of beans floating in that icky, slimy bean juice stuff.

I am really looking forward to cleaning these jars with vinegar (makes them sparkle) and putting them in the pantry.

That will feel really good.