Canning isn’t just for summertime and fall when the gardens are overloaded with fresh vegetables. While I do most of my canning then, I also do some canning in the winter. If the guys are lucky to get a deer during hunting season, I’ll often can quarts of venison, which makes a quick meal. Last winter I decided to try my hand at canning dry beans, and since then, I’ve been canning a lot of them. It’s so easy to do, and I can’t believe I’d been canning for over 20 years before I even tried it.

I’ve canned chili beans, pork and beans, black beans, and now I’ve canned kidney beans. The grocery store had packages of kidney beans in its discount bean – why I can’t figure out because dried beans don’t go bad or spoil – and being the frugal grocery shopper that I am, I scooped all they had to can. I came home with five 1-pound packages, each marked down to $0.50 – cheap eats when you consider a single can of kidney beans can be around $1.

The hardest part about canning dried beans is waiting. While you can do a quick boil on the beans the same day that you can them, I like to soak them overnight and process them the next day.

To can any kind of dried bean, first rinse the beans. You’d be amazed at all the dirt, little rocks and other debris that lurks in those packages. Once you’ve rinsed them, pour all the beans you want to can in a large container, and cover them with water, having about 2 to 3 inches of water above the beans. Let set overnight.

The next day, drain and rinse the beans. Place beans in a large stockpot, and cover with fresh water. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 30 minutes.

While the beans are cooking, prepare pint canning jars, leaving them hot until ready to use. When the beans are ready to can, fill pint jars 3/4 full with the beans. Cover with boiling water, or use the hot liquid the beans cooked in (which is what I do). Add lids and rings, and tighten the rings just until finger tight.

Process pint jars in a pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 70 minutes. Once the pressure reduces, remove the jars, and let set undisturbed in a cool place for 12 hours. Test lids. If a jar hasn’t sealed, place it in the refrigerator and use it fairly soon in your favorite recipe.

I started with 5 pounds of dried beans, and I ended up with 20 pint jars of processed kidney beans.

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