Green Beans 2023

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!!

That looks like an older AA model , and you can get the parts here.

https://www.cookingandcanning.net/national.html

All the information you'll need is on that site.

All American , Presto , and the old National pressure canners use the same dial and weight gauges.
The lock down knobs on the gasket less canners are a little different on certain models .
You can find where to find the make and model on this site also.
Manuals are also on this site.
https://www.cookingandcanning.net/national.html

She's right those older canners are tanks in the pressure canner world.

I'll have to take a look on there, thanks for the links!

One C clamp wasn't enough to keep it sealed, but two C clamps and she didn't leak a drop!!

Looks like the canner in the picture I posted is an All American Model No. 915. On the label it says "Wisconsin Aluminum foundry Co. Inc"

I found the replacement knobs and tensioning screws at the link above. They are on the way here now!

Good for her! I hope she's successful.

When I was about 10 I read Where the Red Fern Grows and had to have me a redbone. I started hunting odd jobs and saving every cent but come spring I'd only saved about $30 and needed $150... odd jobs were hard to find when you lived over 5 miles from the nearest town.

So I asked my grandpa could I use his rototiller. And I tilled up the field behind our house. And I planted it in pumpkins. All summer I hoed those pumpkins and hauled 5gal buckets of water to them. In the fall, I had pumpkins! We lived on a fairly busy county road and I wheelbarrowed them all out to the front yard and put up a big painted sign on plywood, and a coffee can for money.

I'd like to say I made $120 but I didn't, lol. I don't remember the exact number but it was more than $60 and less than $80. But it brought me a huge way towards getting my pup, and by the next summer I'd saved up enough to buy him.

I like the old National canners, they need a seal , but you can get parts as easy as Presto or All American canners.
They are thick and heavy , and work great.
I've rebuilt around 8 or 9 of them.
A couple Presto and two All American 941 or at least one , and a very close to a 941 as it will take 19 or 20 quarts if the jars are the right size.
It's just a little narrower at the bottom. It was used as a sterilizer in a hospital that closed.
I call it a AA 941 as the parts all fit .
Old National canners was bought out by Presto , and I'm not sure , but my research hints that National and All American were made in the same foundry..
All three parts as far as dial gauge and weight gauge fit in each other.
Safety plugs are different , but all the parts you will need for almost any pressure canner can be found here.
https://www.cookingandcanning.net/national.html
Also Ace Hardware , and a few other hardware stores carry parts.

The old National NO. 7 holds 7 quarts , and it depends on how much you can at a time.

That's Awesome

To funny
I have done many bean parties
It will be end of 8 before we start

Finished up last night. Ended up with 68 quarts total off of the first picking. They'll probably be ready to pick again this time next week.

New pressure cooker worked perfect. Sure was nice to have something that worked right. We have parts on the way to fix 3 cookers, lol

Nice !

Does your grandmother can anything besides green beans?

Yes, her and her sisters did around 300 quarts of vegetable soup last year. Most of it to sell for the women's ministry at church

Soup and green beans are the main two, but she also does pickles, pears, beets, and squash relish

Her vegetable soup is one of my favorite things in the world. It gets gone quick

They are working on sweet potato casseroles this weekend

Brat,

Has she ever made bread and butter squash pickles with onions and bell peppers ?

I need to start making some soups. That's one thing I've never made much of other than tomato soup which I make from garden ripe tomatoes and is sooo good. Think maybe I'll make some beef/vegetable soup this winter.

Buzzard, she has not made those that I can remember. That sounds good though. Are they crunchy like normal pickles??

Get after it! She doesn't can hers with the meat in it, but everything else is in there. All you have to do when eating it is brown a pound of deer burger and then dump a jar or two of soup in the crock pot with it and let it simmer for a little bit to warm everything up

Not real crunchy, I will be canning some in about a month

Will bring you a jar sometime

Sounds good Buzz. I still owe you a jar of muscadine jam