Yes, You Can Can

With the convenience of giant supermarkets, corner grocery stores and mini-marts in gas stations, accessibility to the food supply is a non-issue in this country. One might think home food preservation is fast becoming a lost art – in the urban environments anyway. But this does not seem to be the case. Home food preservation (canning, freezing and drying) seems to be particularly attractive to small plot gardeners and backyard enthusiasts even in Chicago.

After a few years of gardening, your skills improve and vegetable yield increases. This glut of produce may become a problem after every neighbor and family member is hit with a constant supply of zucchini, tomatoes and whatever. When people start avoiding you and locking doors pretending not to be at home – it is time to make a move toward preserving your bounty. These same people will be simply giddy at receiving a basket of zucchini pickles and tomato salsa during the holiday season. Trust me.

Although safe home canning is more than simply putting hot food in a canning jar and putting a lid on it, the techniques are not too complicated to be managed in the average kitchen. It will mean learning a few new techniques; it does not require a degree in food science to be successful. Interested? Need help?

The U. S. Department of Agriculture still conducts research in home food preservation methods. Some old practices like putting paraffin on top of jelly, oven canning and open kettle canning have been outlawed as dangerous and unsafe and replaced with new quick and easy methods. The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service is the research base for the latest information on home food preservation.

The University of Georgia has also produced an instruction book (the home preservers bible so to speak) entitled "So Easy to Preserve." It contains over 150 tested recipes and step-by-step instructions for safe home preservation in canning, freezing and drying. The book can be purchased for $15.00 online or send a check made payable to University of Georgia to: So Easy to Preserve, Attn: Kelly Lee, 215 Connor Hall University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602.

Recipes and instructions can also be found at the University of Illinois Extension website “Watch Your Garden Grow” at www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies. This website also provides information on growing garden vegetables as well as harvesting, storage and recipes for cooking with fresh produce. Consider the possibilities.

August 2002
What Is Killing My Tree? | Controlling Creeping Charlie | Home Lawn Fertilization | Watch Out for Wasps | White Grubs in Lawns | Identfying and Controlling Scale Insects | Ode to a Violet | Lawn Care Calendar | Cybergarden Sites | Hort Shorts | Hort Tips | Homemade Flavored Oil Alert – FAQs | Not-So-Popular Edible Vegetable Parts | Refreshing Ginger Lemon Tea | Yes, You Can Can | Making Herb Vinegar | Health & Household Tips | Did You Know?

Index | Feedback