Hi all - hope everyone is enjoying a bountiful harvest this year!

I FINALLY broke out my pressure canner and prepared three quarts of flat, Italian style string beans. Now this is my very first time even using a pressure canner, so I understand I have a long way to go building up experience and learning. Anyway, when all was said and done, the jars lost a couple inches of the salted water inside, so I'm assuming it "siphoned" out. I did a search and came up with a bunch of posts and some of them mentioned that if you do a raw pack (which I did), sometimes the beans absorb water during processing and that can account for the reduction in the amount of water you start with in the jars (?).

Regardless, being a newbie, I have no clue! I didn't fool with the flame under the pot a lot and it seemed to be keeping a pretty steady pressure the whole time, but again, this is my first time.

Any thoughts about what can help me avoid siphoning?

Also, there's now around an inch and a half or two inches of string beans in the jars that are now above the water line - will they go bad or will they keep ok with the reduced water level?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me!

Lisa