This is an unusual pickle, pickled French beans are very good in a salad, well drained and dressed with olive oil. They will keep, unopened, for several months. Use one-pound preserving jars as they are just the right size for French beans. The easiest way to fill the jars is to turn them on their sides and fill them with neat stacks of beans. The cooking time for the beans will vary from 3 minutes for small tender beans to 5 minutes for slightly larger ones.
If you can't find the right size jars I tend to trim them to the size of the jars and put the trimmed pieces in a separate jar which means they are already ready for your salad.