# Canned Green Beans - questions



## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

1. Ever add seasoning meat/fat BEFORE processing? 

2. What's your favorite canning green bean and why?

3. How long will canned green beans store before the eating quality begins to drop off?

4. Is Fortex a good canner and can it make 'shelly green beans' and what color of bean?

5. Please share any info/tips on canning green beans.

Thanks,

Larry.


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## siletz (Aug 23, 2011)

I would not add any meat to your green beans because meat requires a longer processing time and by then your beans would be mushy. I would suggest just canning your beans with a little salt, then adding bacon or whatever after you open up the jar and are heating it to serve.


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## PackerBacker (Dec 13, 2012)

kyredneck said:


> 1. Ever add seasoning meat/fat BEFORE processing?
> 
> 2. What's your favorite canning green bean and why?
> 
> ...


Many can beans with some bacon but it's on the fringe of canning safety. Like canning cheese and meatloaf.

I can whatever variety of bean is ready to pick. 

I have yet to experience any bean that was a good dual purpose.

We are eating some green beans that are 3-4 years old and they are just as good as the day they were canned.


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## Indiana_Jones (Nov 15, 2011)

We like Kentucky Wonder beans and I always try to pick them when the pods are young. Otherwise they get stringy, even the so-called stringless varieties. We also try to only can the beans (and many other things) that we will consume in one year. But we have eaten beans off the shelf after three years and they tasted like new.

My mother-in-law always put a little fat (bacon or ham) in each jar but I was taught to not do it.

Sorry but I don't know what "shelly beans" are.


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## Domeguy (Sep 9, 2011)

we've got canned beans from 1976 that taste great . . .they're not real crispy . .but they're good . .:yummy:


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

kyredneck said:


> 1. Ever add seasoning meat/fat BEFORE processing?
> 
> No, I do not even add salt
> 
> ...


Let us know how it goes.


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## Lake Windsong (Nov 27, 2009)

We grow kentucky wonder and blue lake because we like them both cooked in the oven with a little olive oil drizzle and salt.
That said, both varieties can well. We don't add meat or fat when canning, we wait until reheating.
As far as how long they stay good, can't really help there, because we usually only can enough to last a winter or two, and usually add our canned green beans to a stew.


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## Dixie (Sep 20, 2010)

kyredneck said:


> 1. Ever add seasoning meat/fat BEFORE processing?* Never! I'm afraid it would cause them to go rancid. Flavoring is added when you open the jar.
> *
> 2. What's your favorite canning green bean and why?
> *White half runners...great flavor.
> ...


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

Domeguy said:


> we've got canned beans from 1976 that taste great . . .they're not real crispy . .but they're good . .:yummy:


I opened green beans canned in 1992. They were great.


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

kyredneck said:


> 1. Ever add seasoning meat/fat BEFORE processing?
> 
> 1 teaspoon salt per quart of green beans, although I am going to try canning some with garlic next summer.
> 
> ...


Generally speaking, any of the beans can be used for canning, freezing, and/or shelling. BUT, with the number of open pollinated beans that are "specialized" I'll grow pole beans for fresh green beans, black-eyed peas, chick peas (garbanzo beans) for making hummus, pinto beans for refried beans and chili (yeah...I'm a damn Yankee and I take my chili with beans), navy beans for baked beans and bean soup, and peas for soup, salads, stir-fry, etc. Personal preference is the deciding factor.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Thanks for the responses.

I asked about seasoning meat added PRIOR to processing because that's the way I can my dried pinto beans, with ham, and they're delicious. Then I finally get around to consulting the blue book and see that dried beans require the same processing time as meat - 90 min @ 10 psi per qt, green beans are less - 25 min @ 10 psi per qt. So yes, I agree siletz, it'd make the beans mushy. So, I won't do that. 

Dixie, Andi, do you all stick your half runners or just let them ramble? Ever plant them in with corn? You know, like on an outside row.

Half runners are hard to beat for flavor, BLs are hard to beat for production, I've never grown KY Wonders. SS Co-ops here sells Missouri Wonder pole beans, which were our favorites for years, then we got lazy and switched to Roma 2 bush beans.

Anybody here ever grow *Romano pole bean *(old Italian bean)? I'm thinking about experimenting with a short row each of Romano pole beans and *Fortex pole beans *(old French bean). I hear Fortex is delicious raw right out the garden.

JayJay, twenty years, that's pretty good. Domeguy, thirty six years, and they're still good eating? Wow, these things are good to know.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

AuroraHawk said:


> Generally speaking, any of the beans can be used for canning, freezing, and/or shelling. BUT, with the number of open pollinated beans that are "specialized" I'll grow pole beans for fresh green beans, black-eyed peas, chick peas (garbanzo beans) for making hummus, pinto beans for refried beans and chili (yeah...I'm a damn Yankee and I take my chili with beans), navy beans for baked beans and bean soup, and peas for soup, salads, stir-fry, etc. Personal preference is the deciding factor.


You grow a lot of beans! The only cowpeas we ever grew were 'Yard Long'. A friend served us some 'Pink Eye Purple Hull' that were fresh out of the garden and were absolutely divine eating. We grew French Horticultural one year for shell outs, and the Goose bean we grew makes excellent shell outs or shelly green beans (pods stay tender to the very end), vines are huge and rambling though.

Heehee, I'm an unofficial 'chili connoisseur', love the stuff, all varieties, Mex, TexMex, Colorado, Cincinatti, etc., etc. My wife sometimes forces me to add, gasp, spaghetti to it.


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## Dixie (Sep 20, 2010)

kyredneck said:


> Thanks for the responses.
> 
> Dixie, Andi, do you all stick your half runners or just let them ramble? Ever plant them in with corn? You know, like on an outside row.
> *
> ...


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## AuroraHawk (Sep 12, 2012)

I was an organic gardener before organic was fashionable  so I've had a bit of experience with lots of garden crops. Now that the knees are shot, I plant strawberries in hanging planters, trellis/climb/tie-up anything that will grow up (even my muskmelon) so I don't have to do the squatting and/or kneeling that I once did. Container gardening will be the extent of my gardening from now on and you should see my latest container!

Down the street a family is remodeling their kitchen. They put out the packing crate for their new stainless steel counter top, on bulk trash day. That crate is 5'3" X 10'6" and about 16 inches deep. I bribed a truck owning friend into dragging that crate to our place. Come spring it will be my herb garden. I hope I manage to find a few more of those...they will save the cost of building raised beds although I will still have to purchase the soil to put in them.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

kyredneck said:


> Dixie, Andi, do you all stick your half runners or just let them ramble? Ever plant them in with corn? You know, like on an outside row..


I let my half runners ramble and put a pole bean in the corn, along with the squash. (three sisters )


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I only add salt to my canned gr beans also. I agree that if you wait to pick them when they are bigger, they are stringy. My favorite bean, and I can't think of the name, is a purple striped. When cooked it turns yellow but it is very good raw or canned. 
I love to open a can, dump into a skillet with some sautéed onions and cook. Yummy


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

AuroraHawk...my dh couldn't get up into his big truck(semi) his knees hurt so badly. Climbing porches and stairs was next to impossible.
I read about _*glucosamine*_, a tablet that lubricates the joints.
He is a new man...I watch him get in and out of his little truck, climb stairs, etc. and he is a new man.
He had corotid surgery and an aneurysm in July, and had to omit all vitamins during that..it took him a few weeks to return to the state he was in after he began taking them again, but he is doing great with no pain whatsoever. He won't do without them now for any reason, he's that confident it is the glucosamine that helped him(we keep them stocked).
I get all the vitamins I can from puritanpride.com because they have buy one get one free, and buy 2 and get 3 free.. and I have never paid shipping ever.
Hope this helps...don't expect instant relief, but dh saw discomfort leave the first week :2thumb: and each week got better to eventually, no pain at all. ( he only takes one a day!!!)

Hope this helps you or anyone reading this. Peace..jayjay 

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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

My grandmother always canned whatever my grandpa planted which was usually half runners and greasy beans. No fat in them, just a little salt. We found a jar that was given to a neighbor who recently died in 1998. Tasted just fine. As long as its processed correctly, shldnt have a problem.


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