Green beans have started

My parents were in town last weekend and helped us harvest from the garden. Most of out time was spent picking beans. There were 6 rows of tenderette bush beans to pick. All together, we harvested 44 pounds of beans on this first picking. A bushel of beans of 30 pounds so we picked about one and a half bushels all together. We expect to harvest again this weekend and we may get another harvest after that. Once we picked, we spent a good deal of time snapping the ends off the beans and breaking them into pieces for canning. With two pressure canners going, we canned 30 quarts of beans on Saturday/Sunday. Beans are simple to can. We fill the warm jars nearly to the top with beans, add boiling water and a teaspoon of canning salt and pressure can them at 240 degrees for 25 minutes. Of the 30 quarts, only one didn’t seal. Aside from the beans we canned, three families had a good helping of fresh beans to boot. Emily’s grandfather mentioned and I have read that beans near tomatoes do better than beans alone and that certainly was true of our first harvest. We have one row of beans between two rows of tomatoes and they are larger, healthier plants and produced more beans than the rows that were away from the tomatoes. Next year, we will plant tomatoes and beans, every other row.

a 5-gal bucket o' beans

Dad processing beans

Momaw processing beans

Mom and Abigail doing beans

beans ready for the jar

beans to be canned

2 thoughts on “Green beans have started

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog, so exciting to see a new face. I have yet to can green beans, maybe I’ll try this year?? ~Kim

  2. Thanks for having a look here too. We’re neck deep in squash right now. Tomatoes are about to pop and beans have a lot more to give too. I know what to do with a lot of ‘maters and beans…I am still trying to figure out good ways to use/preserve squash. Anyhow, we’re all about the garden right now and we really enjoy it!

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