I pickled my first green beans

United States
July 7, 2007 9:42am CST
This is my first year at gardening; I have a small patch of bush beans. On Monday of this week I picked a gallon zip lock bag of green beans, and yesterday I pickle another bag. So yesterday I bought the ingredients and items to pickle and can the green beans. I do not know if any of you know what it takes to can vegetables or fruits. First you have to buy the jars, and then have the pots and pans to sterilize the jars, and then put them in boiling water bath after the jars are full. On top of all this it was 106F yesterday. I started this project at 5 PM and finished around 9 PM. I first took the green beans and some kitchen scissors and cut the tips off of them. I then went out and picked the second batch of beans and cut the tips off of the beans. I decided to add carrots to the green beans. I then cut the baby carrots in half lengthwise so I would not have to cook the carrot some first. Then I washed all the beans and carrots. I assembled the dill weed, garlic, green beans, carrots, and jars on the counter. Packed the ingredients tightly, then I had to soak the jars in hot water in the sink making sure no hot water got in to the jars. I forgot that if I put the boiling brine into the cold jars and then put them into the boiling water bath the jars might break. I then made the brine, which is a mixture of water, vinegar and picking salt it did not smell good. By the time I was putting the brine into the jars, putting the caps and the lids on the jars and putting them in the boiling water bath I was sweating bullets I had to be careful not to drip sweat into my jars. LOL I had to boil the jars for 10 minutes then do this twice because the pan I was using only held 5 jars at a time. I made 10 pints. We will be able to crack open our first jar in two months. I hope they turn out well. I have used the recipe my twin sister uses and loves. The only thing is it calls for cayenne pepper and I do not do hot. So I did not use as much cayenne pepper as the recipe calls for. It called for a ΒΌ of a teaspoon per pint that sounded like a lot of cayenne pepper. Hot. The silly part of the whole thing I have all the things I need to can with up in Idaho at my twin sisters. My twin sister bought a lot of canning stuff from a lady who was moving, including the boiling water pot that holds more then 5 jars, the ladles, and other items including the jars. I am going up to her home at the end of the summer and we are going to can what is left of her garden and then drive back home to California. I just jumped the gun a little. LOL With canning you have to use the vegetables when they are in season and are fresh.
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1 response
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
7 Jul 07
Good effort made by you. Blanching the carrot a bit would maybe make the different when you taste you finished product come winter. Blanching would stop the enzymes that could ruin your canning produce. Good luck with this and I hope the canning in the fall goes extremely well for you.
• United States
8 Jul 07
When my twin sister canned her carrots she did not blanch them first. The only reason I thought you needed to blanch them was to soften them up some, but I cut them small enough that I felt the boiling brine and the 10minute boiling bath would soften them.