Good Evening Gloria, Please do not blame your Mom for not telling you about leather britches because by the time you were born the need to dry the beans in order to keep them thru the winter was replaced by the hot water and pressure canner. You likely seen the correct way to prepare the beans or the way Mother Earth says. We are doing it a little different by removing the strings from the beans before threading the bean on the string because when you eat them the bean string may be tough and hard to chew. I am glad that you are considering taking your Mom's pressure canner. They are really nice when you are doing a lot of jarring up. Be sure the canning rack is still in the canner along with the weighted gage. If it also has a pressure gage you should have it checked to see if it is OK or just go ahead and order a new one. You might want to check the lid to be sure it still goes on good before ordering anything. The old seal will be ok for this. After you get the new seal in and the pressure gage is OK you could do a test run. You could just put seven jars of water in the rack with about three inches of water around them. Put the lid on and be sure the arrows on the lid and body of the canner are lined up and turn the heat to its highest setting with the weight off and wait until a steady steam is coming out of the little hole and time it for ten minutes. This removes the air from inside the canner. Place the weight on the nipple and watch the gage because the pressure will build to 12-15 lbs in three to five minutes. Cut the heat to medium or lower and time it say for ten minutes making sure the pressure stays at 12 ( this will be different where you are at) I will send you a chart that tells you for sure. Anyway you time every step. Cut the heat off and they say to remove the canner from the heat. Let it cool till the pressure drops. Do not ever take the weight off with any pressure showing on the gage because it will damage the lid and suck the contents from the jars. I even wrap a thick towel around mind to make it cool slower. When you take the old seal out you should clean the grove out real good because if there is any thing at all left in it the new rubber will not seat right. Don't use anything sharp to scrape the grove out because you might cause a burr and the rubber would hang on it. It will take some doing and you will think that the new rubber is to big but it will go in with a little pushing,biting your tongue and saying things to it. You will win. I have another search assignment for you in a little while. I am so glad that you have overcome your dislike for pressure canners. They are a time saver and fairly safe if operated properly just as anything else say driving down the road in your car. Drive safely and everything is fine drive reckless and you may have trouble, Will find the other infor for you in a minute. G,Bean
Hi G Bean, you know, the more I think about it and the age of this pressure pot, I believe I will just purchase a new one. This pot originally belonged to my grandmother. She would have been 122 now so it is OLD. I may not be able to get a new seal for it now anyway. I would say it has probably cooked thousands of jarred veggies in it's day. I feel like it may be the safest thing to do that I don't have another bad experience to start. Years ago I had a small pressure cooker that I did meals in. It was fast and as I worked and had a family to feed, it came in handy for getting supper on the table fast and time left for other chores. This one night I had put on a pot of beans. Don't know what happened, just know it took a while to get all those beans off the ceiling! The lid didn't come off, don't know if this is what ya call it but that little safety button shot out like a bullet and so did the beans, all through a small half inch hole. Lucky no one was standing close. It could have been something that I did wrong to cause it. I've read a lot on canning lately and maybe my way of jarring string beans and such may not be good, that the heat doesn't get hot enough in a boiling water bathe to kill all the bad stuff, although my mom and granny did it the same way until pressure pots were available and no one ever died from food poisoning that I know of! The bad thing was that one pot of jarred string beans had to boil for 3 hours. That's the biggest reason I quit jarring string beans, too time consuming and I freeze butter beans. OK I'm ready for my next assignment, bring it on!
Morning Gloria, Yes, I would say that your grandmother's pressure pot is aging gracefully but as a lot of things that were made back then were made to last for a long time. Just for the heck of it what brand is it and model number? The 21 qt that that I have used for years is a Maid of Honor and the 16 qt is a Presto and also very old. I can still get parts for both. My neighbor canned over a 100 qts in a pressure pot that is so old it may have been used by Wilma and Fred Flintstone. If the lid is easy to put on and take off and the over pressure plug is replaced along with the pressure gage being checked it should be OK. I think the pot itself can be pressure tested to be sure. The new canners are thin walled and cool faster where the older one are heavy and cool slower. I like the slow cooling because the jars if cooled to fast the water will be sucked out. Some of jars would still be boiling after 35 minutes after the pressure reached 0 and would spew out if bumped. Some of the older as well as the newer canners have a metal to metal seal and a clamp with no rubber seal and might be OK but I don't know as I have never used one of them. Now back to Google: search Shucky Beans if you would like to learn how to prepare a wonderful meal from your old timey beans. Be sure to stock up on side meat. You likely left the heat turned up to high on your little cooker for to long. It does not take much heat to cook things after the right temp has been reached. There is no telling how much pressure was in the pot when the plug blowed out. The only way to reach the 240 deg is steam pressure. At ten pounds the temp is 240 and you just can not get there with a hot water bath canner. That is why we have to cook them so many hours and them let them seal. We have such a pretty sunny day out that it makes me want to go take some pictures. Believe I will and may send you some later. Hope you are having the same. Bye for now. G. Bean
GB my mom use to grow some type od bean that grew real long .She would pick them and lay them over her arm.They were that long .They were very good with salt jowl in them .I did know the name but don't know now.My dad put 2 Iron poles in the ground and slid and old iron bed springs over them and she run those beans on it .She also had a running spinich that she planted in the same bed and after the beans finised .I would love to find both the beans and spinich seeds .Do you happen to know what i'm talking about?
Hi Glendann, Was the beans that your Mom grew about a yard long? There are several beans that grow that long and several colors and some say that they really taste good. Some are low growing and others will have vines from 10-15 foot long. Several types come from Asia. Did your Mom pick her's when they were 10-18 inches long? I may have to order some seed and mix them with my Greasy beans. HA There are several types of spinich that will run about. I have not tried either of these plants but may need to try them. Some of these as well as several other beans might grow good in your garden. What are you going to grow next year besides beans?? G.Bean
Thanks for answering these beans would grow at least 18 to 24 inches and mom would pick them between 15 and 18 inches .They were green beens .You should try them .They are very tasty and it doesn't take long to pick a mess of them . The spinach was very good too.If you find them please let me know. I plan on planting tomatos sweet corn green beans sweet peas early late Dec. are Jan.on the peas ,Okra and Cucumbers.I only have a place for 6 short rows I would love to have a few of your green bean seeds .I might can talk someone into making me a few more rows.I'm not really able to take care of a big garden plus all my flowers and work 30 hours too.
It is indeed a good thing to share what we have with others and gardeners are about the best at that in the world. In fact, where I grew up in Michigan, no one dared leave their car windows open when zuchini were ripe for fear of finding a bag left in their car because the gardener could not bear to just throw them away and if they appeared in the grower's house, there was likely to be revolt at the dinner table.
My first greasy bean Hi Greasy Bean, I wanted to show you my very first greasy bean! I'm so proud! It's the only one on the bush big enough to get a pic of. :-D
Wow!!!! Whatcha gonna do with that bean? Maybe it has little baby brothers and sisters. When they get big enough, you can eat them all?
The rest of them will follow that one .Good Job southern bell.I plan to plant green beans next year .Hopefully GB will let me have a few of his greasey bean seeds to plant.
Oh no Pondlady, I won't eat these. I'm gonna save it for seeds! There are more beans on the bush but they're too small to show up in pics yet. G Bean sent me seeds to plant this summer and they didn't make it. I had 6 -8 seeds left and planted them in pots. I thought if nothing else I can make enough for seeds. G B would send me more seeds but I wanted to try and do it myself just to be able to say I can!
Good Afternoon All, Well Gloria it looks like you are well on your to becoming a Greasy Bean grower. That is sure a pretty baby you have there and more to come. I am also proud of you. I guess I better get to town and get a present for when the family has a baby shower. When I blow the picture up it looks like it may be a 7 beaner which if let dry on the vine and saved for seed for next year would produce a good mess of beans and when the others mature you would be in business for sure. I will send you some more seed when I shell them out before spring. Glendann, I will be glad to send you seed for this bean and if I can I will try to send you and Gloria a few of the Greasy Cut shorts also. They have a shorter pod but the beans have a good flavor. Well I need to get to town and buy a gift for the baby shower. Who gets to pick the name?? It is raining here or I would take a picture of some of the new baby's aunts and uncles and get you to post them for it to see. Wow! if all of the relatives show up for the shower there will be a crowd. By Now. G. Bean
