Six Ham Bones...

simmered on the stove the better part of the day.  Fished them out of the broth, let them cool and picked the meat from the bones.  Cut the ham into bite sized pieces, bagged them up in Ziploc bags and stored the bags in the fridge.  Strained the broth to get out any bone and gristle bits and returned it to the stock pot.  Added some chicken bouillon for more flavor and found room for the pot in the fridge as well.  Dumped 2 1/2 quarts of dry Great Northern beans into another pot, covered them with water and set them to soak overnight.

In the morning I drained the beans and added them to the broth.  Threw in some of my dehydrated chopped onion and some dehydrated, shredded carrots.  Added a bit of granulated garlic just because.  About halfway through the cooking process I added the ham pieces.

At this point you have probably figured out that I don't have a recipe.  Everyone has their own method of making ham and beans.  Some add diced tomato or tomato juice and some have other ingredients they like to use.  It is all according to taste.  I tend to keep it simple.  That's the way my family likes it.

The soup simmers on the stove until the beans are tender, stirred now and then to keep it from scorching.  Some day I will invest in the more expensive stock pots so I won't have problems with burning whatever I cook in them, but for now I make do with what I have.  And do a lot of stirring.

When the soup is done, I set aside enough for a couple of meals and ladle the rest into quart jars.  They are processed in my pressure canner for 90 minutes.  I wound up with 11 quarts of fantastically delicious ham and beans.  Tomorrow morning I will wash the jars and label them with the contents and date.

The cheapskate in me loves that the meat was a bonus left over from canning ham a couple of weeks ago.  Beans are still relatively inexpensive.  The onions and carrots were purchased on sale and dried using my dehydrators.  And I now have more meals that will feed us, no matter how high grocery prices get or no matter what happens around us.  Add a pan of cornbread and we will eat well.