Extension Highlights Summer 2016 | Page 10

Prepare for the Upcoming Food Preservation Season

Barb McGuffie, Community Educator, CCE Yates County

CCE Schuyler Guest Writer Column

Reprinted with permission from Extension Corner, June 2016

We are just beginning the wonderful season of fresh, local fruits and vegetables. Asparagus is abundant on stands; strawberries are coming soon. Did you catch the young, tender dandelion greens before they got too big and bitter?! Berries of all sorts are on the horizon.

Is it one of your goals this season to preserve some of these tasty foods for winter, or perhaps for gifts that can be enjoyed by family and friends? The time is now to develop this year’s action plan, and your choices include freezing, drying, or canning. Either way, Cornell Cooperative Extension cannot stress enough the importance of following proper guidelines to insure that the final product is safe to eat

Please consult the experts whether you are new to food preservation, or if you’ve been “doing this for decades.” Just because “this is the way Grandma canned”, doesn’t mean it’s still acceptable. With new varieties of vegetables, equipment, and scientific studies, some recommendations have changed.

Current acceptable resources include:

•National Center for Home Food Preservation: http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html This website is a great go-to source for background information as well as instructions on the various preservation processes. If you have internet capability, you’re in the middle of canning tomatoes and have a question, access this website for an answer.

•So Easy to Preserve, now in its Sixth Edition from 2014. One can order a copy for $18 from the website http://setp.uga.edu/index.html In addition, from that website, a click will take you right to the National Center for Home Food Preservation mentioned above.

•The Ball Blue Book; check online for current recipes at http://www.freshpreserving.com/

•USDA’s Complete Guide to Home Canning, at http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html revised in 2009.

Be sure that any reference material you consult is researched-based and the most recent available. When deciding which method to use, consider the following:

•Are there safe guidelines and approved recipes available for that particular food?

•How would you prefer to store the final product? Do you have freezer space or shelf space for canned goods?

•Do you have the equipment necessary?

•Is the cost acceptable to your budget?

Helpful Summer Nutrition Information