Well, it's that time again. We had rain all last week and the green beans jumped. Ended up picking 4 bushels off of 4 rows Saturday.

Dropped them off at my Grandmother's and her and her sister got to work stringing them. At 79 and 80 years old they are still getting after it. They worked until almost midnight Saturday night stringing beans

Last night we started canning them and got 33 quarts done. Probably have about that many more to do still.

We are limping along two pressure cookers that are from the 50's or 60's. My grandmother will never throw anything away, and now I have to use C clamps to get this one cooker to seal. I am proud to say that for the first time in 60 years this family has purchased a new pressure cooker, and it will be here Tuesday it was an act of Congress to convince her ours are worn out, but she finally saw the light yesterday

We will probably get her to 100 quarts and then give the rest away

Bring em to the convention for the auction table.

Awesome to see those two ladies still stringing and breaking beans. I have 4 60-foot rows, 2 Blue Lake Bush and two Jade. First two will be ready in a couple of weeks. My Dad always said put away twice as much as you think you will need cause the garden may not grow well next year.

^^Good advice

Yeppers. I picked the first lot a couple of days ago. I canned 109 quarts last year so still have some left. I'll eat them fresh for as long as i can before I start canning towards the end of the picking

My ten year old daughter is raising green beans as a job.

Dad always planted an extra row. He wouldn't talk it up but lots more than just family ate out of our garden. He and the deacons at church took their charge to care for widows and orphans seriously.

Brings back memories of my mom, aunt and grandmother. The simpler times of life. Great post coondagger.

Just started picking a few here

Excellent!

Unless you bought a new All American, that old C clamped canner will probably be better than it.

Love it! Great to see.

I’ll try and sneak a few jars away!

Raising them to sell herself? Raising them for someone else? Just curious.

What’s a good pressure cooker to purchase ? And thanks

All American is top of the line. Heavier gauge metal than any others and NO rubber gasket to wear out and replace. If you buy it your grandkids will be using it, just like coondagger is still using his grandma's. 921 is the best size unless you do a lot of big batches of stuff and then a 941 may be worth the cost.

The one downside to the All American is that it takes longer for the pressure to come back to zero due to the heavier metal. Not a big deal if you're just doing one batch but can be a pain when doing multiple batches.

Next in line would probably be the Presto 23qt. This is what I usually recommend to new canners. It does have a rubber gasket and rubber over pressure plug that will need to be replaced periodically. But it's a good all around canner, a good size, and a great price.

I think you'd be happy with either.

FWIW my grandmothers cookers from way back have a rubber gasket. And I’m not really sure if they’ve ever been replaced. We canned around 500 quarts with these cookers last year. They’ve been good ones

The cooker I ordered her is a presto 16 qt. She cans 7 quarts of beans at a time and never deals with pint jars. If you want to be able to double stack pints then the 23 quart is definitely the way to go, but we have no use for pint jars. When she saw the $500 price tag of the All American 921 she was out, lol

With arthritis from doing hair for 60 years she also can’t get the lid on/off the all American style canners with the wing nut style screwing knobs

To sale herself.
Her own garden.

To sale herself.
Her own garden.

That is good for her. When I was growing up I used to pick muscadines to sell in my grandmothers beauty shop. Those old women haggling over how full the bags were taught me a lot about business!!