How do I preserve peppers, beans, tomatoes....

[SheltieDogsForever]

As you can tell from the title I have no idea what I'm doing and I will soon be reaping a steady stream of vegetables from my garden. This is my first garden and I don't have a clue what I'm going to do once the deluge begins.

It's not a big garden since it's my first. I have three kinds of hot peppers, sweet banana peppers, beans, and three kinds of tomatoes. I do plan to make salsa, but I need to be able to can not only the salsa, but everything else as well.

Can I freeze any of this? Do I need special equipment in order to can? I plan to get a dehydrator to dry some of the peppers, but what is the easiest and the best way to preserve what I will soon have?

So many questions and absolutely no idea what I'm doing! Don't ya love it as a plan begins to come together?

 

[blissful]

You can dehydrate or freeze all of these.
For canning tomatoes, you'll need a water bath canner, cans, lids, screw tops, can lifter, can funnel, vinegar, canning salt.
For canning beans, you'll need a pressure CANNER not a pressure cooker, cans, etc.
Get directions for doing this correctly from a BALL canning book, or search out University Extension offices for official recipes and directions.

Use good sterilization techniques for your jars and lids, use only very fresh vegetables. If you have questions as you go, there are a number of very good people here that can answer specific questions. Here is a link to some salsa recipes for canning (which are different than salsa recipes not specifically for canning).
http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/PNW0395/PNW0395.pdf

Hope this gets you started. Good luck!