digdirt With the Fortex beans, I've been removing the stem-end of the bean and leaving the curved point. Maybe I should remove both in the rest of them. Now, note that they don't get mushy without blanching if I make sure there's no air in the package AND if they are put directly into boiling water from the freezer. That's what I normally do when cooking them anyway, so mushiness hasn't been a problem. David & oregonwoodsmoke I hear you about preferring the French cut! Many years ago I used to buy the Green Giant ones with slivered almonds, but then we got to be more set in our ways, I suppose. I like the mouth-feel of Frenched beans less than the whole-cut ones, but it sounds like a good thing to do with beans that may be tougher or older. The Fortex pole beans are truly the best I've ever grown and eaten, either fresh or frozen. They're very long, eight to ten inches at even pencil-size in diameter or smaller, no strings at all, and yes, a true green pole bean. Linda Lou I'd think blanching would be needed for canning beans maybe more than freezing them. Wouldn't freezing beans either slow down or altogether stop the enzyme action until they reach "deterioration" temperature, whatever that is? That's what I concluded after realizing that if I quickly freeze the just-picked beans (without exposing them to air in the package after freezing) and then put them directly into boiling water from the freezer, they are nearly indistinguishable from fresh-picked beans. I've also found something similar with corn. This was by accident. At least thirty years ago, I stopped at a road-side stand at the end of the summer and bought the guy's last bushel of corn for a dollar. I had a car-full of little boys who'd been to the beach, so when I got home, I didn't have time to shuck the corn that we didn't eat at dinner. So I tossed it into plastic garbage bags with the shucks still on and put the whole shebang into the garage freezer and promptly forgot them. Just before Christmas, I remembered those ears of corn. When I checked, they hadn't suffered freezer-burn, so I brought out a few of them to thaw and shuck. They were absolutely delicious! We had the rest for Christmas dinner and New Year's Eve! Truly, they tasted fresh-from-the-garden, too. So I do wonder, sometimes, about traditional wisdom, though in most cases it truly covers the situation. I suppose digdirt's advice is good advice for adventurous sorts like me, to test things out. [Of course, you can do that with freezing vegetables but not with canning them.]

It is the individual beans that get blanched though, right, not the whole shells ... ie you shell them first, not after? Correct. As for using, yes most will need to be boiled for a brief period (until al dente) before any other use such as saute or stir fry or in salads as they will still be very hard and hard to digest if not. One reason why pressure canning them works so well. For a side dish, boiling them for 20-30 mins until fork tender in a broth with added ingredients such as onions, garlic, peppers, and other seasonings is a common method of preparing them down south. They can also be baked, added to soups and stews, etc. They can be used in jambalaya and other creole recipes, a dish called Hoppin' John (a personal favorite), dirty rice recipes, and even mashed and used like refried beans. For freezing, after blanching and chilling, drain well and spread out in thin layer on cookie sheets to quick freeze before packaging. Dave

Since posting my freezing tips several years ago, I've found another fool-proof way to reheat frozen beans in small quantities. If all that is needed is enough for DW & me (about a pint of frozen beans) I just use a pot of hot water from the coffee maker. I pre-thaw the beans under running water, then place them in a large bowl, pour enough hot water to cover them, and stir. After about a minute, I quickly drain the water from the bowl, and repeat the process, until the water remains steaming hot after stirring. At that point, drain, season to taste, and enjoy. This method preserves most of the texture, they will almost taste like fresh picked. It works well for frozen zucchini as well.

@digdirt2 "However posted information may be misunderstood by the reader no matter how careful we are in our posts. And the fact is that there are several cases where recipes for canning vegetables need not be pressure canned but may be safely BWB (not HWB) canned." No. Despite your condescending tone and dismissive attitude I did not misunderstand in the slightest. Indeed, your reply suggests quite the reverse...that you didn't read or comprehend a word of what I wrote. Frankly your comments are dangerous for anyone reading these forums and I don't care for them at all. If you truly were 'too conservative, too careful' as you claim then you would start from the most careful and conservative of positions and then work outward from there. Instead you seem hell bent on treating this casually and non-specifically. The reality is that this is botulism we are dealing with here, literally the most lethal toxin known to man so I would think a 'Master Food Preserver' would take that seriously and not throw around casual remarks on the subject. ALL vegetables should be processed using the pressure canning technique ONLY! Repeat it, embrace it, make it your #1 rule. Got it? Good, now you can add the few exceptions that exist to that rule, that's the safe way to understand this, not the other way around which is obtuse. Also rather than just rattling off a bunch of things in a list like salsa, chutney, sauerkraut etc which is counterproductive lets use some actual science to understand the toxin and how it can develop during the canning process. Botulism grows in these conditions (this is from the CDC): -Anaerobic environment (that means no oxygen which is what you create when you can a jar) -Low acid (anything above a pH of 4.6 is considered low for these purposes, many fruits are high acid which is partly why they are safe to can with a HWB technique) -Low sugar (compared to fruits, veggies are much lower in sugar, which adds to their risk) -Low salt (again, we often want to preserve our veggies 'as-is' as much as possible and add our seasoning when they are prepared so this compounds the risk as well) -A certain temperature range (water boils at 212 F but botulism must be boiled at 250 F or higher for at least 5 mins, hence the pressure canner...temp increases proportionately with pressure) -A certain amount of water (vegetables contain water naturally and many canning recipes call for them to be immersed in it which is why this is a concern as well) "Lastly, with pressure canning pH is not the concern. Proper pressure and processing methods eliminate that concern. " What in the world are you talking about? What I said above had you cared to read was "The pH MUST be below 4.6 to safely use the HWB method", I never said anything about pH when using pressure, not sure what you're going on about here. "Nor are pH meters considered a reliable method of testing pH in BWB processing." Nonsense. Some pickling recipes I've seen call for diluting the vinegar with water. The general rule is to never go more than 50/50 but that's assuming you have a consistent 5% vinegar solution. Instead of guessing, use a pH meter and adjust until you are safely within the safe zone. "Density is the issue in pressure canning as it is the density of the food in the jar that determines the processing time required and many home food canners do not understand how processing time is calculated." Again, your replying to a post on the dangers of HWB+vegetables, not pressure canning. And I'm not sure how you calculate time but I have this little app on my phone called a 'timer' that works remarkably well.