Q and A: canning green beans, canning fermented foods, and canning shredded coconut

Canning green beans

My wife and I would like to know if it is safe to can green beans with cooked bacon added to jars when filling with beans? If so do you have a good recipe?

Tommy Walker
Brazoria, Texas

I know a lot of people do can cooked bacon or ham with their green beans, using the regular time for green beans. But if I were going to do it, I’d use the time required for meat (75 min for pints/90 minutes for pints), just to be safe. Bacon is meat, after all! Just add as much bacon or ham as you wish, then can as with the time required for any meat recipe. — Jackie

Canning fermented foods

Is it possible to pressure can fermented vegetables and fruits that have been prepared as instructed in the cookbook “Nourishing Traditions: the cookbook that challenges politically correct nutrition and the diet dictocrats” by Sally Fallon. To be brief, the food item has whey added to it along with salt and left on the counter to ferment for a few days then into the fridge. This is all fine until the power goes out.

Christina Ihloff
Lawrence, Kansas

Boy, you have me stumped with that one! I really don’t know, so I wouldn’t advise canning them until we learn more. — Jackie

Canning shredded coconut

I was given 20 pounds of shredded coconut. Can I can it and if so how? Love your blog. It keeps me going even though some tell me I’m too old for the country life.

Elizabeth Walker
Adel, Georgia

I have never canned shredded coconut, but you can just pack it into wide mouth canning jars and put a lid on it and the coconut will stay good for years. I do that and have never had coconut go bad. Don’t listen to those nay-sayers. They’re just jealous of us! — Jackie