I've gotten a good harvest of green beans this week, more than even we green-bean lovers can eat fresh. What to do? Clean them, take off the ends, string as necessary, break or cut into 1-inch pieces, and blanch for 5 minutes. From there, either plunge into ice water (not yourself, though you will feel like it- the beans) to cool off quickly, then into labeled freezer containers or bags, or can them while hot with enough of their cooking water to cover and leave a head space of one inch.
One inch? Why? Because beans are low-acid foods, we use a pressure canner to can them, and the food expands at high temperature and pressure. The increased pressure raises the temperature to kill some very interesting bacteria that thrive in low-oxygen conditions and produce deadly toxins. Go to the University of Georgia for the latest safety info from the USDA, and follow the rules exactly, and you'll have green beans this winter even if there is a power outage. It works- there are multiple safety features built into these things now, so nothing blows up, and it seems to expel less heat into the kitchen than an open water-bath canner. If you are good at following instructions, you should try it sometime.
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