Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

CHECK PRESSURE CANNER GAUGES

It’s summer and time to preserve your summer produce. Safe, high quality home canned foods begin with the right equipment used properly. If you use a pressure canner with a dial gauge you need to have it tested to make sure that it is showing the correct pressure. Call the Extension office at 626-3742 and schedule a time to have your gauge checked. You just need the gauge or the lid with the gauge. There is no charge for this service.

CANNING 101

Preserving Foods Safely Classes

Juicy ripe peaches, fresh green beans, sweet blackberry jam, and crunchy dill pickles… nothing tastes better than home-canned foods. For many, preserving these and other foods at home can be an intimidating process. However, this does not have to be the case. In fact, with a little knowledge, the right skills, and practice, anyone will find that it is so easy to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables at home.

The University of Tennessee Extension Office in Claiborne County is pleased to announce a course to help with canning foods safely at home. “Canning 101: Preserving Foods Safely” is a course designed to teach, through hands-on demonstrations, the “ins and outs” of home canning. Topics to be covered in the course include:

• Using a Pressure Canner to can low acid foods;

• Preserving Jams and Jellies;

• Pickling;

• Using a Water Bath Canner;

• Freezing and Drying Foods.

Whether you are an experienced canner who has preserved food for years or a novice wanting to learn more about home canning, this is the course for you.

Participants will learn the basics of food preservation as they safely preserve vegetables, fruits, pickles, jams and jellies. You will learn the difference between a hot water bath canner and pressure canner and why we use each one. Anyone interested in learning to preserve fruits and vegetables or who just wants a refresher course may attend. Cost is $60, which covers all supplies for the course.

Participants take home a “So Easy to Preserve” book and a dozen jars, most filled with the preserved foods from the workshop.

There are two workshop options:

1. June 11 from 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at LMU Garden.

2. July 20 from 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Tazewell Senior Center.

You must pre-register for each of these classes so supplies can be purchased. Call the Extension Office at 423-626-3742 or email me at cbrandon@utk.edu to sign up for the class that you plan to come to, so supplies may be purchased. Classes are limited to the first eight people that sign up.

This course is open for anyone who would like to learn more about preserving the wonderful produce from your garden or from the farmer’s market or your local farmer, so you will have home preserved foods to eat all year long.

If you would like to learn more about how UT-TSU Extension serves Claiborne County you can visit the office, call us at 423-626-3742, visit our website at claiborne.tennessee.edu, like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/extensionclaiborne), or follow us on Twitter @ClaiborneExt.