At our June meeting, we had a presentation on the basics of canning. Many of our gardeners are seasoned gardeners that have been doing canning for years. While some in our class had never gardened or canned before. Elizabeth Andress from the University of Georgia presented a power point presentation that was very informative. I would like to share a link to the webpage for anyone who may wish to view the presentation. This webpage also contains slide shows on various other aspects of home canning such as jams, salsa, and tomatoes.
Link for Presenation: Slideshows
During the course of the evening, I shared a wide variety of tools and what I like to call handy dandy gadgets that are helpful when canning. There was display of a water bath canner, two different styles of pressure canners, and a Ball Blue Book for Canning which can be purchased at Wal-Mart or on Ball’s website for about $7.
I recommend everyone should have one of these in their collection. Personally, I have been canning for years but still pull it out when I am canning just to refresh my feeble mind. I hate to admit it but as I get older I tend to become forgetful having to ask myself how many pounds of pressure and for how many minutes. Keeping this book close by just helps me keep everything on track. Here is a link to The Ball Blue Book Website: http://www.freshpreserving.com/home.aspx
Ms. Glenda, one of our gardeners brought some jars of her home canned foods from last year to display and show the different size jars that are available.
In another little display there were books on herbs, some fresh herbs I brought from my herb garden and some that I had dried in my dehydrator last week. I also briefly described how to make your own herbal vinegars, which we will be doing a workshop on in the future.
Our meeting was packed full of information for our gardeners. Mrs. Cotton showed our gardeners how to make their harvest reports and how to record what they are harvesting as their garden starts producing. They will bring them back to the next meeting and turn them in monthly.
Before ending the meeting participants were given garden tools and organic spinosad for any insect problems they may encounter.
Leave A Comment