Oh! Beans!

The weekend was all about bean canning at my house.  I have many pounds of dry beans.  My husband used to be a bean grower and now our son is the bean grower.  Every year he grows several hundred acres of  two to four different dry beans: black-eyed, small red kidney, large red kidney, pinto, garbanzo, cranberry, great northerns and pinks.  I keep the burlap sacks of beans in one of the freezers.  I keep half gallon canning jars in the storage pantry filled with dried beans and I also keep up to 50 quart jars of canned beans.  Yeah, that's alot of beans, but they're sorta' free, easy to cook with and really good for you.  My kids can come into the house grab a jar of beans, a jar of stewed tomatoes, fry up some homemade sausage throw the whole thing together and have dinner for 6 or more in less than 10 minutes...much better than a can of Hormel.  The garbanzos make great Hummus and I also marinate them in good olive oil, minced garlic and balsamic vinegar and add to salads (or eaten out of the bowl: oops!).  I open a jar of pintos, melt some bacon fat in a skillet and mash and fry them up to be added to burritos, tacos, bean dip....I'm telling you...beans are the way to go we eat them hot or cold at least once a week, usually more.

The Way I Can Dry Beans:
If you bought your beans from the store you will need to soak them...dry store beans can be up to or over 5 years old...the farmer will hold them in storage until he gets a good price...sometimes for a year or two, then they are sold and the wholesaler may hold them for a couple years...BUT if you're lucky like me you just need to soak them for a bit or not at all....

I put my beans in a pot and par boil for about 10 minutes...then I put them in the sterilized jars, fill to about an inch and a half to the rim, ladle in boiling water and a bit of salt...wipe the rim of the jar and put the lids on, put in the pressure canner...vent for 10 minutes, put on the weight, let the gauge hit 11 pounds and process for 90 minutes...TA! DA!  I did pintos, small reds and garbanzos today.  I did navy, black, Big Red kidneys yesterday and Tuesday I did cranberries and pinks....and that's enough!  I now have plenty of beans for the year, to give to family and friends and to pass on to the food bank (dry beans).