The green beans are ready NOW! I went to the garden expecting to see the little one inch starts of my beans growing ever so slowly it seemed, and low and behold they were ready. Thank you sunshine for some great, long, plump, bright green beans. I don't know about you but these are some of the vegetables I love to eat all year around and nothing beats eating 'home canned' beans in the middle of winter. If you don't know how to can or have not tried these you are missing out. If you want some green beans my Mom's garden in Puyallup is producing abundantly this year and she is selling her excess beans for $2/lb fresh. These are very good, and I've just spent a day canning 31 lbs of them (see photo of the first batch). The grocery store here is selling organic green beans for $2.59/lb and non-organic for $1.59/lb.
For canning purposes it takes about 1 lb of green beans to fill a quart jar. If you think of how much you get of the store bought canned beans, the cost works out pretty economically, the flavor is superior, you can use the jars again and again, AND you know what you are eating, really. Personally I like at least 52 jars a year (one for each week) in my pantry and work them regularly into my menu plan for our family of 4. I've given a few jars away this year as 'samples' and gifts too so am planning to make a few extra this time around so I can continue sharing and promoting a good thing. If you are interested in buying some from Puyallup send me an email and we can arrange a delivery. If you need help getting started with canning I can probably help there too. Enjoy the cooler weather.
