BASICS OF CANNING AND PRESERVATION 2022

Harvest Cannin

 I am the nutrition health specialist

we have a course that has many different

00:18

components to it

00:19

there are six different sessions that

00:21

are each about one and a half to two

00:22

hours

00:23

just regarding home food preservation so

00:25

this is going to be a very brief snippet

00:29

what do you need to know so it's

00:31

important to note that if you

00:32

are currently preserving your foods at

00:35

home

00:36

and you learned how to can specifically

00:39

from like your mother or your grandma

00:41

a lot has changed since the 90s so

00:44

there's been a lot of research done

00:46

and we know that there are a lot of

00:49

practices that people were doing before

00:50

that we know now are not safe

00:52

so our main safety concern with canning

00:54

specifically

00:56

is botulism so botulism is

00:59

a microorganism that can be inside of

01:02

your

01:02

food products it can be in the soil and

01:04

so it can get into your food when you

01:05

pick it

01:07

and then if your products are not

01:08

properly

01:10

preserved not properly canned at the

01:12

appropriate time

01:14

at the appropriate pressure that kind of

01:15

thing then you may kill the actual

01:17

microorganism but the spores may still

01:20

be there

01:21

and then those spores release a toxin

01:23

and that toxin

01:25

is bad for us and so there have been

01:27

cases of people dying from this

01:29

it's also important to note that you

01:31

cannot see

01:32

if your food has botulism toxin in it

01:35

after

01:36

it's preserved you can't taste it you

01:38

can't smell it so that's what

01:40

makes it especially dangerous for us so

01:42

we want to make sure that we're using

01:43

safe practices

01:45

so that if we are preserving our own

01:47

foods at home that we're keeping

01:48

ourselves and our loved ones safe

01:50

so that's why it's important to use

01:52

tested recipes when canning

01:54

and then you always want to make sure

01:55

that you're using reputable sources so

01:57

your local extension office and then

02:00

there's a couple other resources i'll

02:02

give you as well there's the

02:03

home food preservation resources there's

02:05

a website for that as well

02:07

there are other methods other than

02:09

canning for preserving your produce

02:11

just a couple of them dehydrating

02:12

freezing and fermenting

02:14

and our online class does cover all of

02:16

these just a very quick snippet of

02:19

canning ph matters there are a lot of

02:21

different factors that go

02:23

into how to safely can your produce but

02:26

ph is one of the really important

02:28

components and it determines our method

02:31

of canning

02:32

so if we have a low acid versus a high

02:35

acid food that determines whether we're

02:37

going to pressure can or if we're going

02:39

to use

02:40

a water bath canner or a steam canner so

02:43

steam canners are new

02:44

they can be used interchangeably with a

02:46

water bath canner

02:47

so our high acid foods which would be

02:50

our foods that are

02:51

low on the ph meter here on the right

02:54

side of the screen

02:55

those are typically our fruits and then

02:58

our

02:59

low acid foods would be things like our

03:02

vegetables and our meats

03:04

and so for our low acid foods we need to

03:06

pressure can those to make sure that

03:08

they are safe

03:09

for us to consume and then our high acid

03:11

foods we can use that water bath or

03:13

steam

03:14

what gets really tricky here and another

03:16

reason it's really important to use

03:17

tested recipes is when we're making

03:19

food products that have a mixture of

03:21

these foods like if you're making

03:23

salsa tomatoes if you can see here

03:25

they're right

03:26

on the border of that low acid versus

03:28

high acid food

03:30

and then a lot of times we add in

03:32

vegetables to that salsa recipe

03:34

so most of your salsa recipes or your

03:37

canning tomato recipes

03:38

will have you add an acid like vinegar

03:42

lime juice lemon juice things like that

03:44

to make sure that they're staying

03:46

acidic enough for you to be able to use

03:48

a water bath canner

03:50

so if your recipe calls for a half cup

03:53

of onion

03:54

and you think that it's safe to add an

03:56

additional quarter cup

03:57

that's not accurate because you may tip

04:00

that balance to make it a low

04:02

acid food and then your product would

04:04

not be safe

04:05

to process in a water bath can or you

04:07

would have to use a pressure canner

04:09

so it's really important that we use and

04:11

follow those tested recipes and then

04:14

freezing is a quick

04:15

way to preserve our foods depending on

04:17

how you're doing it

04:18

and i just want to note that this is

04:20

better for low water food

04:22

so for example if you got a ton of extra

04:24

tomatoes

04:25

freezing would be a really hard way to

04:28

preserve those tomatoes because

04:30

since there's so much water inside of

04:32

those tomatoes when you freeze them

04:34

the cells and the tomatoes are going to

04:36

burst when that water

04:37

expands and then when you go to thaw

04:39

them you're going to have a really mushy

04:41

product you can eat it but the texture

04:44

just won't be ideal so we want to make

04:46

sure that we're using the proper means

04:48

of

04:49

preserving to have the best product when

04:52

we go to eat it as well

04:54

so things that you can freeze a lot of

04:56

people freeze corn you can freeze green

04:57

beans things like that

04:59

meats are excellent to freeze or some

05:01

things that are too

05:02

thick in consistency for us to can like

05:05

our pestos

05:06

or like a pumpkin puree you would have

05:08

to freeze that as well and a lot of

05:10

times when we're freezing our vegetables

05:12

and stuff specifically

05:13

it's better for us to blanch them

05:15

actually for a couple minutes before we

05:17

freeze them

05:18

so that whenever we do saw them we're

05:19

eating them later they have a better

05:21

quality here's a bunch of resources we

05:24

do have an online food preservation

05:25

class unfortunately we are not offering

05:28

in-person home food preservation classes

05:30

at this time due to the pandemic but our

05:33

online food preservation class has a lot

05:35

of

05:35

awesome information it's only thirty

05:38

dollars

05:38

and you get a lot of handouts with

05:41

recipes

05:42

for how to can and recipes for how to

05:45

freeze it tells you

05:46

everything from time to blanch all your

05:48

different vegetables to which vegetables

05:50

are

05:50

the best to dehydrate preserve it fresh

05:53

is an online newsletter

05:55

that is on our extension website if you

05:57

just google preserve it fresh mu

05:59

extension

06:00

there's a newsletter that goes out every

06:02

other month i believe

06:03

it's got recipes and awesome information

06:05

they had

06:06

information on freezing mushrooms in the

06:08

last one which was kind of cool

06:10

and then on the right side of the screen

06:12

here you can see there's a monthly q a

06:14

session with

06:14

a st louis county specialist leslie

06:16

birch she's a nutrition health

06:18

specialist there she's got one coming up

06:19

on august

06:20

20th but also one on september 17th and

06:22

october

06:23

15th and this is a short q and a session

06:26

it's only an hour long so it's

06:27

really kind of reserved for those people

06:29

that have taken that online food

06:30

preservation class

06:32

or have been doing a lot of canning you

06:34

can also get your pressure canner

06:36

tested at your local extension office

06:39

we recommend that you test your pressure

06:42

canner gauge

06:43

lids at least seasonally or if you drop

06:47

them

06:47

or if it's been cracked or submerged in

06:49

water things like that because that can

06:50

alter

06:51

your pressure can or gauge and we want

06:53

to make sure that you are

06:55

preserving those foods at appropriate

06:57

pressure and that that's accurate and

06:59

safe

06:59

and then also i've got some information

07:01

here university of

07:02

georgia handles the national center for

07:04

home food preservation there's a lot of

07:06

excellent information there as well

07:08

you can contact your local nutrition and

07:10

health specialists in their office

07:12

i know this map is kind of small here

07:14

but it's got

07:15

who serves your county and you can

07:17

contact them with

07:18

questions about duration and pressures

07:21

for pressuring your foods things like

07:23

that

07:23

most of missouri is under 1000 feet

07:26

which means that

07:27

we can pressure can at 11 pounds which

07:30

is good

07:31

and then if you're out of missouri and

07:33

you're at a higher elevation than 2000

07:34

feet colorado state can tell you what

07:36

you need to pressure canada as well

07:38

here is my information as well we also

07:41

have a statewide nutrition

07:43

health  page mu extension

07:45

nutrition health...