Food preservation has always been a very important of Grow Appalachia’s curriculum.  Learning how to safely preserve our harvest can enable us to enjoy the fruits of our labor throughout the year.  By canning our own food, we can also limit our salt, sugar and preservative intake.  And their is nothing like opening a jar of canned green beans in the winter. Delicious!

For our June participant meeting, Leah VanMeter, from UTK extension, led a very informative class on boiling water canning and pressure canning.

Topics covered in the class included researched based methods for water bath canning for high acid foods and pressure canning methods for low acid foods.  She also gave a demonstration of the necessary equipment and utensils needed for both methods of canning.

Leah VanMeter gave a handout of information on canning, which included a very helpful list on the steps for successful pressure canning.

We are very proud of the wonderful job that our Grow Appalachia participants are doing with their gardens and we would like to share some of their photos.