I love sweets, but I love pickles more…I know, hard to believe! So since it is…”tis the season” for all things beans, let’s can some amazing pickled dilly beans! Pickles you say, green beans you say?? Why YES! They make most excellent pickles. Besides…kids love them!
Canning is a super great way to preserve and store away all the goodness from our summer gardens and then come chilly days of winter we have…pickles! Well, yes..we have jams and jellies too. Canning is fairly inexpensive too, once you have all the items necessary to get the job done such as canner, jars, lids, utensils, pectin for making jams and jellies and other ingredients for that all important PICKLING!
What say you? You didn’t grow a garden this year? No worries. Just go check out your local farmers market or your whole foods store. And be on the look out for sales when you can get the most bang for your buck.
Ready to get started? Okay…let’s do this pickled green bean thing!
Get Your Beans:
Do you have a garden?? Well, then I am pretty sure you have green beans by now. Go pick those suckers!! If not, how about the corner farm stand, your local farmers market, CSA or even your favorite grocery store (please try and get organic), look for those amazing sales for in-season produce!!
Get Your Ingredients & Tools:
You will need to purchase (on sale) or acquire (think thrift store, yard sales) canning specific jars and lids. Ball Jars are the most common. The lids generally come with a seal top with a ring that twists onto top of jar to hold on lid with the seal. You can find these products at some grocery stores or hardware stores, or walmart is a great place too. I have also started using tattler lids this year and love them. You can find them HERE.
It’s not absolutely necessary to have the specialized utensils for canning, although they are really nice and make the job go much easier. The tools are usually a funnel, jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter, kitchen tongs and a jar wrench. This set is usually very inexpensive and you use it over and over again. You can find it HERE.
Last but not least a decent water bath canner will get you started. You can use it to can jams, jellies, fruits and anything pickled! A good canner comes with the rack inside and doesn’t have to cost a fortune. If you in a bind a large stockpot works too, just put a dish towel on the bottom so your jars don’t wiggle around and break when boiling! Looking for a canner? You can find one HERE!
Get Your Recipe Below:
Ingredients
- 3-4 lbs green or yellow beans
- Brine:
- 5 cups of Vinegar (I usually use white and/or cider, but you can experiment with other types as well)
- 5 cups of water
- 1/2 cup kosher or pickling salt. (you want to use a coarser grain of salt then just table salt)
- Seasonings Per Jar:
- 1/2 tsp dill seed
- 1/2 tsp mustard seed
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1-2 cloves of fresh garlic
Instructions
- 1. Put lids and rings in small saucepan of boiling water
- 2. Bring water to boil in water bath canner, add jars to sterilize, boil 10 minutes
- 3. Make your brine
- 4. Gather your seasonings
- 5. Prepare your beans by rinsing, snipping the ends and cutting out bad spots (beans need to fit in the jars)
- 6. Remove jars from canner, fill with seasoning then beans, top with brine to 1/2 in from top of jar
- 7. Wipe rims of jars, put on lids
- 8. Place in canner
- 9. Return water to boil - boil for 10 minutes
- 10. Remove from canner and place on counter on dishtowel, as they cool they will "ping" letting you know there is a good seal.
Important Stuff:
**Processing times are given for low elevation areas. For elevations of 3000-5000 ft, add 5-10 minutes to boiling time. For elevations above 5000 ft process for at least 15 minutes.**
**Never use jars which have cracks or chips in the upper rim, and never use lids and rings which are dented or bent in such a way as to not allow full contact with seal to jar. If the lid does not have full contact with the jar, the lid may not fully seal, or worse, the jar may appear sealed but any crack in jar or nick in seal lid may allow a small amount of air through over time, which will create an environment for bacteria. If you ever pull a jar out of your pantry in which the lid is not sucked down but has popped back up in the center on its own, discard contents of jar and DO NOT eat.**
**You may notice after a couple of hours that some jars haven’t sealed; the lid is not sunken down but still able to be pushed up and down. One reason your jars may not have sealed is because they needed more time in the boiling water. You can just reprocess them by placing them back in boiling water. Try leaving them in for between 5-10 minutes.**
**It is possible some foreign matter may be between the jar and the seal lid which may be another reason your jars did not seal. Unscrew the lids and check the seals to make sure there aren’t any foreign objects (like any of your seeds of pepper flakes) affecting the contact of the jar with the seal ring on the lid. If you see any, wipe away any from lid and seal. Remember, if you remove the lids, you must re-sterilize the lids before replacing them on the jar. Boil lids for a couple minutes to sterilize and place the lids back on the jars and re-process (in a rolling boil) for another 5-10 minutes, and allow to sit. They should seal up. If you have tried re-processing a couple of times and the seals are not being made, there is always a chance you have a faulty jar or lid.**
This article is hopping around the following Blog Hops:
Homestead Barn Hop, Wildcrafting Wednesday, From the Farm Fridays, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Simple Life Sunday Blog Hop.
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Nothing in this post is to be construed as medical advice, simply a sharing of things that have worked for me & my family. If you have any symptoms of serious illness, taking medication, pregnant or nursing, or have never worked with herbal materials or essential oils before, please consider consulting a medical professional before use. I am unable to offer advise for your particular medical situation; please ask your Doctor, Nurse Practitioner or Naturopath for further guidance. The statements made here have not been approved by the Food & Drug Administration. These statements are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. This notice is required by the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act.
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