Bonnie,,
kidney beans our great home caned. pick and shell them . never tried to can drayed.

I looked them up in the canning book and they can be processed if you use a pressure canner. It would seem the dried form which keeps so well would be lots less work. Did you know that kidney beans are wonderful if pickled? I make a combo now with black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, yellow or green or just whatever is in the cupboard. In less than a week, they have absorbed the sweet, tart flavor. We like them much better than cucumber pickles and they are more nutritious.

They can be canned but as said before you need a pressure canner. You can also freeze them in small batches after cooking.
Check out the harvest forum they can help you more over there.

You can substitute homegrown beans for canned beans by cooking them -- you'd want to cook them slowly and gently so as to keep them intact like the canned ones.

Since it's tedious to spend hours simmering dried beans every time you want to plop a can's worth into something, cook a big batch in advance, drain them and freeze them spread out on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap. When they're frozen solid put them in an airtight container for storage. This way you can thaw out a small amount at a time.

Canned beans typically have salt added, so factor this into your cooking when you use homegrown. I would think a medium-sized can of beans (about 15 ounces?) has something like 1 1/3 cup of beans and 2/3 cup canning liquid.

Kristin

Puzzelfan...would you share your pickle recipe? sounds interesting.