The promised update

The greens bed

I've promised this update for a while, but I've let other responsibilities call me away from it. So here it is! My garden is both a source of joy and disappointment this year. The vegetables that I have planted are doing exceptionally well despite the extra rain and very hot temperatures, but I did not get some of my normal stuff planted in time (cucumbers and corn, notably). So it's a bittersweet update, I suppose.

Greens - side view

The greens are doing phenomenally in their new raised bed. Closest to us in the picture is "cut and come again" lettuce mix, and behind that are my collards, kale, and broccoli. The broccoli didn't do as well as I had hoped, coming up very slowly and then bolting quickly because of the temperatures. We did get a meal out of it, but after planting 12 seedlings, I expected a bit more. Ah well. We might yet get some side shoots. And yes, there ARE a lot of weeds in there. Between the rain and being on medication that forces me to stay out of the sun, I haven't made the time to go weeding.

Potatoes

The potatoes appear to be doing really well, but I admit it's taking all my will power not to shove my hands in there and see if there are any actual spuds forming. There are five tire stacks and seven plants in total, and they are growing just as they should. If all goes well, when the greens die back and we tip over those tires, we should find several pounds of potatoes in each. Considering these are grown from the potatoes we put away last year (the ones that went to seed), and are therefore 100% free, I think any harvest at all is a clear win.

Main tomato bed

This is the tomato bed, and is mostly cherry and grape tomatoes. I need to get in there and do a tiny bit of weeding and stake up the tomatoes. Several have fallen over. We're getting a ton of blossoms, though, and the plants look very healthy. I'm not seeing the lushness of greenery that I did last year, which is a good thing since last year we got beautiful greens and no fruit! I'm feeling very positive about these tomato plants. I feel a pot of gazpacho soup coming on...

Zucchini plants

Most large families plant one or two zucchini seedlings and count themselves lucky not to be over-run. We, on the other hand, put in six, and hope they all produce lots of zucchinis! So far, so good. These plants are coming up beautifully, and are just beginning to form a few flowers down in the shaded innards below the leaves. With any luck, we'll start seeing some zucchini in about two weeks. I can't wait, because we like zucchini boats, and zucchini bread, and zucchini with tomatoes and cheese, and zucchini lasagna and...

Hot and sweet peppers

Though you can't see it, there are baby peppers on many of those plants! All of the round pots you see have peppers in them. Some have one or two types, and others have a variety. They definitely need to be weeded, but other than that I'm happy with their progress. This weekend when the sun comes out, these pepper plants (and some of the other plants) will be getting a spray of water and epsom salt, upping their magnesium content.  This is said to create some really beautiful and large green peppers, so I'm more than willing to give it a try.

Pole beans, three types

I have three types of pole beans growing this year, in nine tires. Sis picked me up Kentucky Wonder pole beans for my birthday, and there are four tires growing them. The closest tire to us in this picture contains "unnamed pole beans" that I won in a contest last year from Adventures of a Thrifty Mama on a City 'Stead. Of the three types, hers are the most vigorous (and are a good foot taller than all the others so far!). The four tires farthest from us in this picture are Rattlesnake pole beans, a favorite of our family for some time. All the beans are doing really well, growing up their trellises.

Pole beans

Each tower is built inside a tire that has had the sidewall cut off. The tires were filled with well rotted compost, and planted. I put 12 to 14 beans in each tire, in a circle around the edge. My original plan was to put cabbages in the center of each tower, but I never got to it. The towers themselves are made out of green fiberglass poles that are about 8 feet tall. There are three poles to each tire, around which we've wound a good, coarse hemp twine in a spiral. The beans are quite happily growing up both poles and twine, grabbing on with their little suckers and pulling themselves up. With all the rain we've had, it's impressive watching the amount of growth these plants are going through. They're climbing up the poles much faster than I thought they might!

Bush beans

Speaking of beans, I ran across a handful of beans I'd saved from last year's organic green bush beans. I planted them at the end of the squash bed, figuring they'd probably do alright there. I was correct! They're growing apace, and they're already getting flowers! The only major challenge I have is keeping the squash vines from invading the bean area. I don't mind, though. It's worth it!

Acorn squash

The acorn and butternut squash are doing great. They're vining appropriately and are already putting out flowers. We've seen tons of pollinators (and our peas have proven that there's no lack of them here) so I know that fairly soon we'll see the first budding squash plants. We like to eat our acorn squash with brown sugar and lots of butter!

Beets and carrots

The beets and carrots are coming along well. I'm impressed with the beets, to be honest. They're very large, well spaced, and I'm hoping that the lush greens are a reflection of the developing beet roots beneath the soil. The carrots are in a variety of stages of growth. Some of them are large enough that they should head up soon, and others are still quite tiny. Hopefully they'll even out as the season progresses. I just found a new recipe for making beets, and I'm dying to try it. I might have to go buy some from the farmer's market...

The herbs

My herbs are doing quite well, but are also a bit on the weedy side. The actual tires need to be weeded, and I need to take the weed whacker over and clean up around the tires. Still, we have basil, cilantro, rosemary, dill, thyme, sage, parsley, several types of oregano and mint... There are very few herbs I will need to buy this autumn, which makes me a very happy critter indeed.

Despite not getting the corn and cucumbers in, I'm proud of what we do have. We'll have a year's worth of squash and herbs to harvest in the fall, and maybe enough beets to can some up as Harvard beets. We won't have enough tomatoes, but only because we use so many of them. The ones that are coming look amazing, though! Our peas are going to town, putting out huge amounts. I need to go pick them or they'll start to die back!

How is your garden doing? What favorite vegetable are you growing this summer?

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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June in the garden
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Insanity in the garden
Garden update and my contest win
It doesn't have to be expensive

June in the garden

The garden, June 2013

There's a lot to be happy about right now in my life. The garden is coming together beautifully, if a bit slower than intended. My tomatoes, peas, radishes, carrots, beets, broccoli, kale, collards, salad greens, and lots of other yummy things are coming up gangbusters. Our new sprinkler makes rainbows, too, which puts a lovely hue on everything!

The tomatoes

I have about 40 tomato plants, all told. Half are meaty, slicing tomatoes (Purple Cherokee, Roma, MarketMore, etc), and the other half, pictured here, are cherry tomatoes. I had issues with my meat tomatoes because I planted them to get them outside on Memorial Day or thereabouts, then we had that heavy freeze. Everything had to stay inside the house, and they got a bit root bound. They also got bumped around a lot, and quite a few got broken or squished in the process. The cherry toms fared much better. All of them but one survived, and they're perky as all get-out. I have no idea how I'll be caging them!

The 'broken bed'

The cherries are planted in the "broken bed", the one that was in pieces in the last picture. Because of how it was put together last year, we needed to raise it up higher for this season, and add more (and better quality) soil. After adding a big of height and dirt to it, it looked much better. We also replaced the end pieces, as the original birch logs I used had begun to rot in place.

Green onions lurking

Down the other side of the broken bed we used these bricks, which we filled with dirt and then planted our green onions into. I'm hoping they'll do well, and really spring up, as our family loves green onions in many dishes. If they don't make it, I'll replace them with marigolds to help keep bugs and predators away from my cherry tomatoes. Around the outside of this bed, I also planted nasturtiums, which are both pretty and edible. When they come up, they will add a gorgeous yellow to the dark red and green of the plants.

Squash bed

At the other end of the cherry tomato bed, I planted my zucchini. I ran into a problem when I discovered that it wasn't my two types of winter squash that I had to worry about cross pollinating... it was one of them and my zucchini and pumpkins! It turns out that all these plants are part of a large family, cucurbita. Some of the family will intermix with other parts, and some won't. It took me a bit of research, but I finally came to the conclusion that I could easily plant my butternut squash next to my acorn squash, but putting the zucchini in that bed would bring disaster (at least if I wanted to save seeds, which I most definitely do!). The zucchini has now been planted on the far side of the pea bed, so that there is a physical barrier between it and the offending acorn squash, as well as a bit of space. I will hope that whatever pollinators visit my plants don't hit up both sides of the pea fencing!

Beets and radishes

The radishes are taking over the tire, although there are quite a few weeds hiding inside that leafy canopy as well. The beets are faring rather well, and I have high hopes for them. I'll plant a second crop of them once these ones are grown, in the hopes that we'll get a very late fall/early winter harvest from them. In amongst the radishes are the carrots, and they're looking fantastic! Most are an inch high, and are now easily distinguishable from the surrounding weeds. That makes weeding MUCH easier!

Peas and tomatoes

We doubled up our pea fence this year by zip tying two of the green metal stakes together to make one very tall stake. Last year's peas grew up and over the short fence I had, and ended up breaking in several places because of lack of support. Not so this year! I'm looking forward to collecting delicious, fresh peas from the vines currently growing like wild. Compared to this time last year, our peas are thicker, greener, and much more vigorous, so I think we'll be harvesting a good amount.

I planted some bush beans as well, this year, from the seeds I saved from last year's beans. They're tucked in at the end of the squash bed, two 4-foot rows. It's not a lot, but I wanted to grow enough for a couple of meals, as well as to save the seed for next year. This year, we're going more for pole beans, though, with Scarlet Runners, Rattlesnake Pole, and Kentucky Wonders. They'll be planted (very soon, I expect!) in tires, with a tripod of poles and rough hemp twine wound around. I can't wait for the delicious flavor of the beans, and both the Scarlet Runners and the Rattlesnakes are excellent when dried, for use in soups and baked beans!

The greens bed

Last but definitely not least, the greens bed is doing phenomenally well. There are a few weeds but not overpowering. All but the Great Lakes lettuce came up, and I'm not sure if it just didn't germinate or if the weeds ate it. The cold snap did all the greens well, but especially my broccoli and kale, which are both reaching for the sky happily. I expect to see some broccoli forming in the next couple of weeks, and I might have to start harvesting kale soon as well.

So what's growing in your garden this month? I've yet to put my cucumbers in, and my swiss chard and corn as well. All are going into containers that can be moved around (although the cukes will be stationary once they begin to vine, as the trellis will go on and hold it in place), making it convenient to mow and weed whack.

Listed at the Homeacre Hop #22!

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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Garden update and my contest win

A page from my gardening notes

I'm not meticulous about keeping gardening notes, but I do try to get the main things done. My early attempts are always better, perhaps because I'm so desperate to get my hands dirty. Now that the dirt is a daily thing and I'm running around like a crazy woman with seedling trays in my arms, I have less time for note-taking.

Pole beans

Still, I take the important notes. So many seeds were planted, or how many feet of garden were planted, and most of the time I remember to write down when I first saw their little heads peeping through the soil. This past week has been busy, with many seeds going into flats, and many seedlings going from flats to cups, and many cups going out to the garden. The few delicate things already in the garden have to be covered each night to keep them from being touched by frost, but I don't mind. I've managed to lose a few tomato plants, either to wilt or the cold, I'm not sure which. It's so sad to see them shrivel up in the ground... but better there than in a cup.

The next thing to go into the garden will be our beans. I'm very excited about these because we do love fresh beans. I have three types of pole beans that will go in the garden this coming weekend (my Mother's Day present to myself!): Kentucky Wonder, Rattlesnake, and Scarlet Runner beans. They don't like the frost, but can go into the ground a little before the last frost date because it takes a while for them to germinate. The frost doesn't bother them until their little green heads poke through the dirt.

The beans are getting planted in tires, and will grow up on to tee pees made of branches (check out the pics about 2/3 of the way down this post for an idea of what ours will look like). We have nine tires, which will mean three tires worth of each of the three beans, though it might more practically mean that there's one tire of Scarlet Runner (which I only have a few of) and four each of the others. Regardless, there's going to be a LOT of beans in our future!

French Breakfast and Cherry Belle

In one of our big tire beds, I planted the carrots and beets. I mix my carrot seeds with radishes, for a variety of reasons. First, carrot seeds are incredibly tiny, and I am terrible at trying to get them in a straight row. Mixing them with the larger radish seeds makes it easier to spread them evenly. Second, radishes grow much faster than carrots, and having them interspersed throughout actually marks your rows for you (meaning you can weed earlier) and the grown radishes leave comfortable spaces for the carrots which will soon plump up. I also just love radishes, and so I used two different types: French Breakfast and Cherry Belle. Both have short maturity times (only 23 days!), and they both develop into lovely plump orbs.

The French Breakfast breed are heirlooms, and are slightly elongated with a white tip and red throughout the rest. They have a slightly peppery flavor, and are spicier the earlier you pick them. If you like a mellow radish, let these sit a day or two longer than your instincts call for. The Cherry Belles are delicious and mild, and are bright red balls. They're the organic cousins to the ones you pick up in the grocery store, but are packed with flavor that even Whole Foods and Trader Joe's can't compete with.

Danvers 126 carrots

For carrots, I like Danvers for both flavor and look. I chose organic Danvers 126 this year, partly because I have great soil that's loose and deep, and partly because they're both organic and hearty. Many carrots will develop crooked or split roots if they encounter something in the soil as they grow. While Danvers does that for larger things like stones, when it comes to smaller, hard clumps of dirt, or tiny sticks or stones, the growing Danvers will often just push it out of the way. This results in uniform, beautiful carrots. They also have incredibly pretty green tops, which I happen to like.

Butternut squash, growing tall

I've planted some squash in cups and large cells, and they're doing incredibly well. Their leaves are dark green, slightly speckled, and reaching for the sky! Most of my squash (both butternut and acorn) is already developing true leaves. I'm rather excited about that! My watermelon and pumpkins have yet to poke through, but they take a long time to germinate so I'm not giving up hope yet.

Out in the garden, all my greens have come up and are looking miniature but healthy. The collards are especially vigorous, which was unexpected. The transplanted broccoli and kale are thriving, though we did lose a couple of each to a late frost (or something... they wilted and died). Still, I had back-ups in the greenhouse, and put them out to fill up the holes, and they're all doing wonderful.

Hot peppers, growing big

This week we're putting in two more raised beds, finishing up the filling of the bean tires, and prepping the site for our new flower and ornamental edibles garden. The flower garden is turning out to be extra special because I managed to win a contest for an amazing water fountain from Red, White & Grew and Serenity Health! So not only will we have a hand-made stone wall, we'll also have the gorgeous blue ceramic solar powered water fountain. I can't wait to be finished enough to take pictures and post them for everyone to see!

What state is your garden in? Are you still waiting for snow to stop, or are you half way through your growing season? 

Shared at the Backyard Farming Connection Hop #31!

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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Tires

Tires in landfill (1)

There are tires all over the world that are currently not being used for anything other than gathering dirt and bugs. Tires don't degrade well, and so they're not good for putting into landfill. Yet that's just what happens to the vast majority of them. Some are now being used as fuel for cement kilns, and others are being shredded and turned into rubber mats for animal stalls or for gym floors. Still, there are hundreds of thousands just lying around, waiting to be used in some way. In the garden, we can use those tires for a variety of things!

Some people worry about chemicals leaching out of tires and into their vegetables and herbs. There's a sharp divide between the camps on this issue. One side says that leaching always occurs and you should skip using tires, period. The other camp provides quite a bit of research and information. The bottom line is that this is a personal choice. My observation over the past ten years of using tires in a variety of ways in the garden, is that my vegetables and herbs are healthy, vigorous, and beautiful. There are no odd tastes, and often my garden seems to do better than other standard gardens in similar conditions. I am FOR tires in the garden!

The most popular use for tires in the garden is as planters of some sort. People have gotten crazy creative in their uses, going so far as to paint them up in bright colors, cut them into shapes, stack them in piles ranging from large to small, and many other ideas. The possibilities really are only limited by your imagination.

In my garden, we use tires for a two main things. In the past we've used them for planting potatoes. This is an incredibly easy method for growing potatoes, especially if you've got poor soil. The other use is as a raised bed or beds.

Potatoes in tires

When planting potatoes in tires, you put down your base tire and fill it with compost. Add your potato piece, eyes down. Put a bit of dirt over the top, and allow it to settle itself for a week or two. When the greenery begins to go over the top of the tire, add another tire and more dirt. Continue this for as long as you like. I find that three to four tires are optimal, and provide us with a good batch of healthy potatoes. The best part about tire planting is that, when harvest time comes, there's no digging. Just tip over the tower of tires and your 'taters are exposed and ready to be harvested. Children especially love to harvest from the knocked over towers.

The herb garden, 2012

Larger tires, especially of the tractor variety, work very well as instant raised beds. Once you get the tire into place (and you will need a tractor, backhoe, or very strong friends to do this), you want to cut off the sidewall. Some people cut off both sidewalls, leaving just a cylinder of rubber, but I prefer to keep the bottom sidewall on. It curls up into the garden space, but not far enough to interfere with vegetables. What it does is store water. Water is trapped inside the curl of the rubber, deep in the bottom of your garden, and it holds there well through even drought conditions. Last year my regular raised beds required regular watering, but the rain water was enough for my tractor tire beds, because it held well inside.

Some people like to paint their tires white. This isn't a bad idea. one which I plan on implementing this year. The white color reflects the sun away, and the soil is cooler. For crops that like to bolt, such as greens or broccoli, the extra heat held by black tire planters can actually cause issues. Painting them white alleviates that issue. Of course, you can choose to use your black tire planters for heat loving crops such as herbs or green peppers, solving the problem naturally.

Bean poles (2)

The third way I intend to use tires this in this summer's garden is as the base of a variety of climbing vegetable trellises. My pole beans are the first to come to mind. I purchased both Kentucky Pole and Rattlesnake beans this year, and both like to climb upward as high as they can. They're prolific providers, if you can give them enough space. To that end, I plan on planting ten to twenty bean seeds around the edge of each soil-filled tire (car sized). Into the tire itself, I will stand several tall, straight branches, tied together at the top to form a teepee. The beans will sprout and grow up the teepee legs, creating a thick, abundant growth of beans that are relatively easy to harvest. I expect to have several of these small planters scattered around the garden area, since they are small enough to fit into any corner or space.

Standard trellising

Compared to the standard row method for planting pole beans, the tire method is much easier and more compact. In the space it took me to do one double row of pole beans (see picture to right), I could have planted three or four times as many in tires. Wire trellising can be useful, but for beans it isn't the best option, in my opinion.

Stacked tires can be used to plant bushes in, such as raspberries and blueberries, giving you control over the soil and encroaching weeds. They can be filled with dirt and used as a retaining wall. For people with rocky soil, tire planters can allow you to grow carrots and beets easily by keeping the roots out of the bad ground and carefully inside the tire limits. The results are tasty and healthy, of superior quality to those grown in poorer soil.

Tires have so many uses. Why not give them a try this summer, and see how they work? Make a little tire garden for the children, plant some marigolds or sunflowers in them, and watch the growth happen almost before your eyes!

Shared at the Backyard Farming Connection Hop #23! 

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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1) Image by simonfilm / mourgueFile2) Image  by fattymattybrewing / morgueFile

One Pan Chicken Wonder

So delicious! (1)

I love meals that turn into immediate family favorites. In our home, we all love chicken, and I cook it often enough. I try not to buy all breasts, even though we all enjoy breast meat. Generally I buy a pack of chicken that contains all the various parts. Sometimes I use them together and sometimes separately. This week, I used breasts in another meal earlier in the week, so I had legs with backs to use up. I ran into a great recipe over at Julie's Eats and Treats (via Pinterest, my go-to for new recipes!).

This recipe is one of the easiest I've ever made. Anyone can do this. I wish I'd taken pictures, but I'll admit I thought it was "too easy to bother with." I've changed my mind. This is totally worth sharing!

Start with chicken (2)

I used one of my Granite Ware roasting pans to cook this in, as I am feeding five adults and two first graders at each meal. I sprayed the pan with cooking spray, so the ingredients wouldn't stick to it. Then I put the chicken legs (still mostly frozen, I might add) into the pan in the center. I had four chicken legs with backs attached, and I spaced them evenly. The recipe on Julie's Eats and Treats calls for a package of ranch dressing powder as flavor, but I didn't have any, so I used a blend of salt, pepper, garlic powder, celery seed, dried onion flakes and a no-salt seasoning mix that the family likes. I sprinkled them over the chicken evenly.

Spuds (3)

On the "foot end" of the chicken, I put a pre-cooked frozen bag of smashed potatoes. Earlier in the year, when we bought all our potatoes, we took several pounds and cooked them up in the Westinghouse slow cooker. These were then scooped out of their skins and smashed lightly with forks, and frozen in 2lb bags. It was incredibly easy to just pull out the bag, completely frozen, and dump them into the pan. I sprinkled the seasonings over them as well, and then put a half stick of butter over the chicken and potatoes, in little chunks (see the top photograph).

Green beans (4)

I put the pan into a 250F oven for an hour, at which point the chicken and potatoes were mostly defrosted but definitely not cooked through. The butter had mostly melted, and there was a nice bit of juice in the bottom of the pan. I basted everything a bit with a spoon, then put it in for another hour at the low temperature. At the end of the second hour, the meat and potatoes were fully defrosted and starting to actually cook, and so I added in one 2lb package of frozen green beans to the "meat end" of the chicken. It all looked very pretty, but I was still dubious that anyone would like the results.

I turned the heat up to 375F and cooked it for another full hour (checking every 20 minutes for doneness, and taking the top off the pan for the last 20 minutes). The smell in the house was incredibly by this time, and people were complaining that the food wasn't on the table. I hurried it out, scooping the beans and potatoes into separate serving bowls. I noticed that the beans had been cooking in the juice, and were a bit mushy looking, and I was disappointed. The family isn't fond of mushy beans, and neither am I. Still...

The chicken was perfectly done, moist without being fatty, and delicious. The potatoes had started to brown and crisp a bit on top, which turned out to be the perfect thing. The green beans were not actually mushy at all, surprisingly! They were coated in the juices, but other than a few minor bits from the very bottom of the pan, they were pretty crisp, and had a lovely, fresh flavor!

I would make this again. I will be making this again. It was easy, pretty, delicious, and nutritious. I might even make some ranch dip mix up, just to pour over the top and see how the flavor changes.

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button). If you purchase items I have linked through Amazon or the ads on my site, I receive an affiliate portion of the sale. If you find the items are useful, please purchase from my site! 
 
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1) Image courtesy of Julie's Eats and Treats (used with permission).
2) Image by cohdra / morgueFile
3) Image by Alvimann / morgueFile
4) Image by kamuelaboy / morgueFile

Pressure canning - don't be scared!

Canned baked beans

I'm a firm believer that if you're going to cook something, go big. Leftovers can be made into lunches for the following day, recycled into other meals, and in some lucky cases, can be preserved for enjoyment later in the year. Baked beans are one of those items you can can up, and since they do take quite a bit of time and effort it is worth the effort of making extra.

Just a note to people who are more experienced in canning: This blog is for everyone who cans, from the most experienced to the person who's doing it for the very first time. I may mention things that seem like common sense (don't touch hot jars). Don't be insulted. Instead, think about when you were just starting out, and canning seemed like brain surgery and you were afraid of exploding your pressure canner. If I miss a safety tip, PLEASE make a comment below.

Baked beans need to be pressure canned. A water bath will not have enough heat to destroy hidden bacteria, either in the beans or the small amounts of meat in them. The timing for pressure canning the baked beans are for the recipe I used here, and if you use a different recipe (for instance, with tomatoes in it), you will want to check out the times for processing them. The size of your jars also matters, as well as your height above sea level.

Heating the jars

As with all canning, start with clean, heated jars. I like to run my jars through the dishwasher on the "sanitize" mode, but that's because I'm lazy. It's just as adequate to clean them in hot, soapy water and rinse them well. To heat the jars before adding your beans, you need to turn them upside down in your canner, with about two to three inches of water in the bottom. The water should be brought to a boil, and the steam will fill the jars (and some of the water will, too), sterilizing them and heating them.

Don't pick up hot glass jars with your bare hands. Use a jar lifter or tongs, and always use hot pads or oven mitts. Be aware that when you lift out your jars, not only will they be hot, but they'll be filled with boiling hot steam. As you stand the jar upright, that steam will come out, so keep all body parts away from the jar opening until that steam has escaped. Hot steam will burn you!

Hot jar, ready to fill

Place your jar onto a cutting board or safe surface, or into a shallow bowl. This will help contain the mess which often happens during canning. Using a funnel (as I did in this post on canning tomatoes) also helps keep the mess under control. Put a metal knife into your jar, both to help conduct heat away from the glass and to help you get rid of any air bubbles in your beans after they've been added.

Using a large spoon or ladle, fill the jar with the hot beans. The beans should reach the bottom of the neck portion of your jar, which is about an inch or less from the rim. Use the knife (or plastic spatula) to gently move the beans around, releasing any bubbles. If there were large ones, you may need to add more beans to bring it up to the right level.

Cleaning the rim

Once the jar is appropriately full, remove the funnel and carefully clean the rim of the jar with a hot, moist cloth. Visually inspect the lid for any beans or sauce and clean them off if you find any. Place a hot canning lid onto the jar, followed by a hot ring (don't forget those hot pads!). Tighten the ring "finger tight" but don't wrench it on or you may ruin the seal. Put the finished jar back into the pressure canner, right side up this time. Repeat the process until all your jars are filled and sitting in the pressure canner.

Pressure canner with beans

Your pressure canner may hold a different number of jars from mine. Make sure you check your manual (many are available online for free) to be sure you've got it right. Mine, a 21.5 quart model, holds seven quarts or 18 pints (you stack them on two levels of nine jars each). While it's perfectly fine to use the pressure canner with less jars in it, I personally feel that it reduces problems such as breakage when the canner is full. Also, you'll use the same amount of energy and water for three jars as you will for seven, so you might as well process a full pot.

For pressure canning, the water should only be about two to three inches up the sides of the jars. This is different from water bath canning, where you want the jars completely covered. Do not cover (with water) the lids of jars that you are pressure canning, or you will have problems with seal failures.

Locked and loaded

Put the lid on your pressure canner and follow the directions of the manufacturer for sealing it tightly. My All American canner has six screws around the lid which fold up and screw down to hold the lid securely in place. The screws should be tightened in twos, on opposite sides of the canner. Tighten two, rotate slightly, then tighten another two, continuing until all the screws are secured. Then go around once more and re-tighten to be sure they are fully secured. At this point, you can begin bringing up the heat under your pressure canner.

You want to bring your water to a full, rolling boil to start. Once it is boiling, you can lower the temperature until it continues to boil but isn't spitting out liquid. Your pressure canner should be allowed to vent (blow off steam through its vent hole) for 10 minutes before you put the weight on or start your timer. This lets the temperature build up inside, while venting off the air you won't need. After then 10 minutes are up, put your weight on. For baked beans with pork, you want your weight (or rocker, as it's sometimes called) to be at 10 (see picture above). This will keep the pressure in your canner at the right level for your beans.

Now the waiting begins. You want to process your beans for 65 minutes if you have pint jars, and 75 minutes if you have quart jars. Start timing as soon as your weight is on the vent. Your weight should not be bobbing around on the vent like a crazed squirrel. It should be gently rocking back and forth making the occasional "pfffffft" sound as steam escapes. Slowly (very slowly) lower the temperature on your stove until you reach that gentle rocking. Make note of the setting, because next time you can something in that size jar,  you'll have an idea of what temperature to lower it to, making it easier on you.

Labeled and ready for storage

When the timer alerts you, turn off the heat under your pressure canner. Do not move the canner for at least one hour, and preferably not until it is cool to the touch (which may take several hours). When you can touch the canner without a hot mitt, you may remove the weight. Use a hot mitt to remove it, even if the temperature seems cool, because there may be bottled up steam inside. Taking off the weight allows that steam to escape, and lets the canner depressurize and cool down.

When it is quite cool you can open the lid of your canner. Check the pressure gauge to see if it is at zero, and then gently pull the lid off. If it doesn't come off right away, you may need to let it sit a bit longer, or you might need to encourage it with a wooden spoon handle (sometimes the seal doesn't want to let go). Never try to take the lid off before the pressure is at zero and the canner is completely cool to the touch!

Remove your jars, then check the seals on them by pinging them on the lid with the back of a metal spoon. "Pings" mean the seal is good, and a "thunk" means it didn't take. Any jars with bad seals should be immediately refrigerated and used soon.

If they need a wipe, do so with a damp cloth or sponge. Label your jars and  put them away in your pantry. Over the winter, if you get a craving for those sweet, delicious baked beans you can just pull out a jar and heat it up  in a pot or the microwave. You may need to add a bit of water, depending on how thick your sauce was when you canned the beans.

Check back often for information on canning, preserving, general homesteading and more. If you have questions or comments, please write to me below. I love to answer questions! You can follow the blog via Network Blogs and Google Friend Connect (see the left hand column for the button).

You may also be interested in:
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