The reward of having fresh, yummy green beans all year is well worth the work.
Wash your picked beans very well and then snap. After snapping you green beans I always wash mine again to be sure all dirt and debris free.
Fill your pressure canner with four inches of water, place rack in the bottom of the pressure canner, and then place the pressure canner on the stove with out the lid. Next, place a regular boiler on the stove with water for filling the jars and heat to a boil. Next place canning lids in a pot of water to sterilize them.
While water is heating up take a canning funnel and pack the green beans into your dry, sterilized jars. Fill the jars one inch from the top with green beans and put 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt in each jar. Next fill your jars with the boiling water out of your boiler leaving one inch of head space and remove any air bubbles from each jar, you can purchase a canning tool to help remove bubbles and measure you have the correct amount of head space for each jar. Check the rim of each jar to make sure they are all clean and dry. Take you little canning magnetic lid lifter and remove a lid from the boiling water and place on each jar. Next place rings on jars and only tighten them finger tight.
Carefully take you jar lifter and place each jar in your pressure canner on the canning rack. The canning rack keeps direct heat off of the jars and will keep them from breaking. The water level in the canner should be at least three inches. If not, add more boiling water until you are at three inches. Place the lid on the pressure canner, making sure it is tight. Raise the temp to med-high, DO NOT put weight on the canner at this time. After ten minutes of venting, tighten the side clamps and put the 10 pound weight in place. Green beans have to be processed at ten pounds for twenty-five minutes for quarts and twenty minutes for pints. Keep a check on your canner and do not let it build over 10 pounds of pressure. Be sure to set your timer!!
After time is up remove the pressure canner from the heat. DO NOT REMOVE THE LID FROM THE PRESSURE CANNER!! After the canner has cooled, dropped to zero and decompressed you can remove the lid and take the jars out of the canner with a jar lifter. Place hot jars on a towel and let completely cool. This could take twelve to twenty-four hours. Best sound ever is when you hear that ping because your jars are then sealed. Last step is to remove the rings and check the seal. Pull up on each seal using your finger nails and if it doesn’t move then you have a good seal. If one happens not to seal good have that one for dinner. I keep the rings off and that way if you lose a seal on a jar then you are aware. If you keep the ring on the jar the seal could seal back and you would never know. Also do not stack your jars on top of each other.
Happy canning!