Canning of lima beans

The lima bean is a green or light flat bean. It is use only for the seed, the pods being coarse or woody. Some lima beans are canned and they are handled in such the same manner as the frozen product except that they may or may not be passed through the quality grader.

In case it is the fresh beans, the beans are first washed carefully and stored. They are size-graded and then blanched in hot water at 88-95 °C – the amount of time depends upon the maturity of beans, varying from 2 to 3 minutes for young, tender beans to 7 or 8 minutes for more mature tougher beans.

The beans are automatically metered into cans. The filled cans pass to the briner where a boiling hot 2% salt brine is added to completely fill the can. The cans are sealed and heat-processed.

Some lima beans to be canned are allowed to mature and dry out on the vine before harvesting. In such cases, the beans must be soaked in water for purposes of rehydrating prior to further processing.
Canning of lima beans

Post harvest of lima beans

The lima bean is named after Lima, Peru and very popular bean with its buttery flavor and creamy texture.

Just after harvesting pod and beans are separated by a machine. The pod may be returned the soil or ensilaged for cattle feed, and the bean are taken to the plant where they are washed, blanched cooled and graded.

Smaller beans are blanched at 200 ° F for 2.5 to 3 minutes. More mature beans are blanched 4 to 5 minutes at 190 ° F to prevent bursting of the skins.

The beans then spread in thin layers on drying trays and stir occasionally during the drying process. Normally the drying process started at 120 °F and 130 °F raise this temperature gradually to 150 °F.

They are then washed and inspected for foreign material and then frozen individually and packaged in plastic pouches.
Post harvest of lima beans