Food preservation has inspired countless works of art and literature since the Classical era, but what's so great about keeping food storage long-term anyway?

Say you live in climate that brings warm summers but extremely harsh winters. You have too many vegetables in the summer but where do you find food during the cold season when you can't grow or hunt it? Imagine being stuck in that pickle.

It's much better to already have a plan for food scarce situations. Cue the canning/pickling process! (Thank you Napoleon)

Pickled produce has a shelf life upwards of two years in a cool, dark environment so homesteaders to preppers to backyard farmers can benefit from this method. Turn your overabundance into a valuable asset!

Today we canned bush beans and strawberry jam! 

Believe it or not, our garden is STILL overrun with beans remained unpicked...

Take a look! This is how we did it:

Important items: WIDE MOUTH JARS. We like to use the wide mouth jars because they allow for easier access to your produce when you're ready to use it.

The setup: a pressure canner for sanitizing & canning, boiling water for cooking the beans, and pickling brine in a sauce pan.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP: Sanitize the jars and lids. 

If you don't, you risk deadly botulism. I read about a poor man from California who recently died from eating gas station nacho cheese contaminated with botulism. Don't risk it!

Pictured below: The Official Jar Grabber TM to prevent your delicate fingers from being boiled in the process.

The Official Jar Grabber in ACTION.

(Bonus background blackberry pecan pancakes! Yum!)

The bubbles mean it's working.

We left the jars in boiling water for about 15 minutes to make sure all microorganisms were taken care of... then we let them dry.

They're pretty jars, aren't they?

But the jars aren't the most important item in this endeavor...

Here they are in all their home-grown glory: BUSH BEANS; washed, cut, and ready to can. We grew lovely green and purple varieties this season.

We threw those suckers in a stock pot to cook down a bit. If you don't cook them first, they'll suck up a good portion of your pickling brine and you'll be left with half your beans uncovered! 

When we cook them down, the purple beans lose their color. Such a disappointment, but they'll be just as delicious!

We strained the beans and transfered them over to the canning station where my husband used his super strength to stuff as many beans as he could into each jar.

He filled jar after jar after jar. What a trooper! 

NEXT UP: Pickling salt! This adds flavor and acts as a preservative. 

Then we filled the jars to the brim with brine...

...And added the squeaky clean lids and lid-rings (which hold the lids in place until they're sealed).

IT'S TIME TO PRESSURE CAN! We carefully added each jar to the canner, sealed the lid, and left it to pressurize for about 20 minutes to completely seal the jars. 

Afterwards we moved the jars to a towel to cool. 

The REAL magic happens when you start hearing a chorus of popping lids that let you know your hard work paid off and your canned goods are completely sealed!

Off to the pantry!

Thank you for reading! I hope you can try canning too. I'd love to see what you guys end up pickling this season!

Please comment below and tell me what you think!

Cheers~!

(All images were taken with my LG Stylo)