A certified master food preserver has a lesson for those thinking about canning: you can can. Whether it be apples, cherries, cucumbers and asparagus (just to name a few), you can preserve seasonal foods from numerous sources.
"Farmers markets, your garden, the neighbors, there’s (an) abundance of fruit trees growing from past generations that essentially just lay fallowed because people aren’t aware of how they can preserve that food from the neighbors apple tree," said Christina Ward, a certified master food preserver for Milwaukee County.
"You can have full control over all the ingredients you put in a jam or a pickle versus something that is commercially processed," she continued.
Ward, who is also the author of the book, "Preservation: The Art and Science of Canning, Fermentation and Dehydration," said while the process of food preservation may be laborious, making it a fun, social activity with many hands makes light work.
"I always suggest in classes that it’s a great community activity with friends and neighbors. A few people in a few hours can actually make a fair amount of preserves for a couple of families," said Ward, who offers preservation classes through the Milwaukee Recreation Department.
Nonetheless, Ward said many people are a bit afraid of the canning process as it can create health hazards cooking likely does not.
"With canning, the danger is a pathogen, a microbe, a bacteria, that could cause some serious illness," Ward said. "And some of the worst things is that you can’t smell them, you can’t taste them and you can’t see them. And we're talking about botulism."
However, she said classes can help aspiring canners gain confidence as they can provide demonstrations and explanations on basic canning techniques.
On the other hand, for those who are fearless, Ward said the there are two essential steps to properly accomplish extending the life of foods. This process includes using sugar and the acidification from lemon juice, which draws out water. By taking water away from the food, there’s nothing left for microbes, she said.
Another important step of preserving food is to add pectin, a natural fruit fiber. Fruits such as apples and oranges are filled with pectin and its reaction to heat makes things like syrup and jam thicken.
While canning can be fun, tasty and lets people connect with their food on a deeper level, Ward recommends are a few safety tips and recipes worth keeping in mind.
- Cleanliness: make sure everything is clean. Hot soapy water is the secret.
- Be sure to use enough acidifiers.
- Process it in a hot water bath or a steam canner.
A few recipes from Ward's book, released in June:
