Why bother you ask?  Well, I can get dried beans for usually .10 or .25 per pound, and that’s a dry weight.  When you add in water, and store pricing it becomes approximately a dollar for about a 1/4 cup of dry weight beans.   We eat a LOT of beans.  It is very cost effective for us to can our own.  Plus, you know what’s gone into them.  So, to can dried beans, you start with dried beans.  I store mine in quart jars because our basement is a little damp, and these prevent the beans from growing mold and or sprouting.  This quart jar contains approximately 1.5 pounds of dried beans.  I used the whole thing and put it into 6 pint jars, when all was said and done.  The amount of jars used is dependent on the size of the bean and how much water it absorbs.

Pour them in a large bowl, add 3 times their volume in water, and leave for 24 hours.

This first picture is adding the water.                  This second is after 24 hours have passed.

The beans will absorb at least double their initial volume in water, but still be on the hard side.

Drain:  You can see that they are still a little on the wrinkly side – this is exactly what they should be doing at this stage.

Next, you take your sterilized jars and add 1/2 tsp salt per pint jar.

Then, add the beans.  They should fill approximately 3/4 of the jar, but no more, they’ve still got some expanding to do!  If you fill more, you’ll be scraping them out with a spoon when it’s time to use them – they gain the consistency of a thin cement when this happens…

While you are filling your jars, put your kettle on and boil up a pot full of water.  The next step is to fill your jars, up to the shoulder with boiling water.

Cap and process for 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure in the pressure cooker.  When they emerge, they’ll have a bit of bean “syrup” that has been made instead of the water.  This is what comes out of the jars of store bought beans, but here, you can control how much you get.  I usually get more beans than syrup out of my jars, and in store bought, I estimate that it’s 1 part syrup to 2 parts beans…not a great ratio.  Plus, here, you don’t get any of the funny preservative chemicals, and it’s an easy job to do!  When my beans get out of the pressure cooker, I’ll post a picture of them!

Update:  Finished product!