Newbies Can Can…no not the dance

Yes, Newbies Can Can…but I am not talking about dancing in ruffled skirts!

Today was my first canning experience!  I have been wanting to can for awhile now but I’ll admit I was a little nervous.

So my friend and mentor Donna, of Sharing Life’s Abundance, invited me over for a little lesson.  She suggested we start with pressure canning pinto beans…who I am to argue? 😉

I bought 3 lbs of organic pinto beans and soaked them overnight in preparation for going to Donna’s this morning.  I also bought my canning supplies.

Our other friend Tiffany H. joined in on the lesson and Donna started out by giving us a bit of a microbiology lesson on the bad bacteria that can grow in jars that are not properly prepared and canned.  Check, clean good…botulism bad.

So we heated the jars in the canner and boiled the lids and bands in a separate pot.

While we did this we put the soaked beans in a pot and covered them with fresh water.  These continued to cook for about 30 minutes; the rest of the cooking happens during canning.

 

After the jars, lids and bands were properly sterilized we lined them up on a clean dish towel to prepare to fill them.

 

 

 

 

I ladled beans and “bean juice” into each jar, leaving about 1 inch of space at the top.

Then the jars were topped with the lid and the bands “finger tightened”.

Then into the pressure canner they went!

This is where timing and knowledge gets very important!  You need to reference a good canning guide; I’m a newbie and don’t want to post something incorrect.  I am using the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and thankfully a friend with experience.

After the canning process and letting the canner de-pressurize I used a handy-dandy Jar Lifter to get those hot boogers out of the water.  Yeah, I wasn’t the perfect student, I touched a jar…don’t do that.

Final Product!