How to Preserve Green Beans (4 ways)

How does your garden grow? Unlike last year’s fiasco, I have a lovely thriving garden this year. True, my tomatoes and peppers did not grow past seedlings (possibly due to faulty soil mix?), so I have very few tomatoes and peppers this year. However, I DO have loads of zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers and pickles, watermelon, and green beans.

I certainly have more green beans than we can eat in a week. We started out eating about 2 meals of green beans per week, but now I’m getting a bit sick of eating them. When that happens, it’s time to start thinking about how to preserve the green bean harvest for the winter months. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of the green beans you can buy at the grocery store in the dead of winter. They are missing that fresh taste that comes from garden beans, even if your garden beans have been preserved.

Speaking of preserving beans, here’s my list of 4 ways to preserve green beans so you can enjoy your harvest all year long:

1. Freeze them (without blanching first!)

This is how I am preserving most of my green beans this year. I have never been a fan of things that take extra steps, and whenever I think about blanching produce before freezing them, I get super lazy about it all. Thankfully, The Prairie Homestead made my day: she freezes her green beans without blanching and she says they taste great! Huzzah! Click here to learn how to freeze green beans (without blanching first).

2. Freeze them (with blanching)

It’s totally fine if you want to preserve your green beans “like your mom used to do” and you want to blanch them first. Just because I am lazy doesn’t mean that YOU have to be. Here’s a great tutorial to learn how to freeze green beans (with blanching).

3. Canning Your Beans

Confession: I despise the taste of canned beans. However, I know plenty of people that prefer the taste of canned green beans to fresh ones, so I’m adding that info for my canned-beans-readers out there. One thing I learned about preserving green beans via canning while making this post: apparently you cannot water-bath can your green beans (feel free to correct me, canned beans is uncharted territory for me)! It only works with pressure canners. I do not have a pressure canner yet, but when I do, it’s probably going to be this one (but if you have a favorite pressure canner, please add the info in the comment section, I’m still in research mode for this!). Anyway, here’s the best tutorial I could find about how to can your green beans.

4. Make Dilly Beans

Okay, this is a new one to me. I’ve never had dilly beans before. However, I know that I need more fermented foods in my family’s diet, so I am going to try making dilly beans with my next bean harvest (I planted more beans about 2 weeks ago, so when those are ready, I’ll try this type of preserving). I found a few great Dilly Bean recipes out there, but please feel free to add your own favorite recipe in the comment section! I’m most likely going to try this lacto-fermented dilly bean recipe, however, this pickled dilly bean recipe looks great too.

So there you go. Plenty of great ways to preserve your green bean harvest so you can enjoy your garden all year round. Enjoy!