Can 'O' Beans

Today we are canning beans at the Homestead.
We start with 4 lbs of dry beans. We sift through them to make sure there are no rocks like this one! Once completed, we add some filtered water to a pot and soak the beans over night. By morning they'll look something like this.
We drain and rinse, then add them to a pot of water and bring to a boil for 30 minutes.

While waiting for the beans to boil we get started on the sauce. We add 4-1/2 quarts of Tomato juice to a pot and bring it to a simmer. In the meantime we mince 4 Tbsp of Onion and gather 8 Tbsp sugar, 4 tsp salt, 1 tsp allspice and 1-1/2 tsp of cayenne and stir it into our sauce.

Once the beans have boiled and the sauce is simmering we add boiling water to our lids. Using a slotted spoon, we fill the jars 3/4 full of beans. Next we add sauce to the jars, leaving 1 inch of headspace.
We wipe the rims, apply the hot lids, screw on the bands, and put the jars into the pressure cooker. This pressure cooker holds 18 stacked pint jars so we place 9 on the bottom, separated by a rack, and add 9 more.

Next, we heat the pressure cooker and allow the steam to vent for 10 minutes. Finally, we add the weight and raise the pressure to 10 lbs for 75 minutes.

When time is up, remove the cooker from the heat and let the pressure drop on it's own. Then remove the lid and wait 10 minutes before taking the jars out. If you listen closely, you might hear one or two seal as they cool.