By Kris McDowell
It’s August already and as much as we may be trying to avoid the thought, the long, warm days of summer will soon be a thing of the past. With those days, also gone will be all of the wonderful produce bursting out of our gardens and at farmers markets. There’s still time, however, to take steps to preserve summer’s abundance to be enjoyed for months to come.
Oregon State University (OSU) Extension offers a wealth of trusted, research-based information on safe home food preservation. With their step-by-step guides, tested recipes and even hand-on classes, people can find ways to protect flavor and reduce waste while preserving food at home.
Canning has long been a great way to preserve food and, when done properly, foods will retain their nutrients and flavor. To avoid doing it improperly—and ending up with a product that doesn’t taste good or worse yet, potentially causes serious illness—OSU offers information on selecting equipment and a guide to processing methods, plus advice on what foods to can. Get information on canning vegetables, fruits, tomatoes/tomato products and even seafood.
Canning, which some people may find daunting, isn’t the only method of preservation, however. Many fruits and vegetables can also be frozen and it’s one of the simplest and least time-consuming methods of food preservation. OSU offers information on various methods of freezing—without sugar, packed in sugar syrup, packed in sugar alone, as well as using sugar substitutes. Dozens of fruits and vegetables can be found on their freezing instructions chart.
Drying or dehydrating foods is also a fairly simple process, albeit one that will take varying amounts of time (most of it hands-off, though). The guide is primarily written for drying in an electric dehydrator, however it also applies well to oven drying. There are sections on selecting, preparing and pretreating foods, as well as ones for storing and using dried fruits, making fruit leathers and recipes that use dried foods.
Other resources on OSU Extension’s site, extension.oregonstate.edu/food/preservation, cover pickling vegetables, safely smoking fish at home, kimchi basics, making garlic- and herb-infused oils, making fresh cheese (queso fresco) safely and more.
In case questions arise, OSU Extension also offers a Food Safety and Preservation Hotline, 800.354.7319, that is staffed Monday-Friday during the height of the growing season, July through mid-October (9 am-4 pm). During the off season, voicemails are checked weekly. The helpline is staffed with certified Master Food Preserver volunteers who are trained and certified volunteers who assist OSU Extension Service in their efforts to provide up-to-date food safety and preservation information to Oregonians.
“Oregonians are fortunate to have so many wonderful foods that are grown or gathered in our state. But safely preserving foods is a science and an art, and it can be potentially dangerous if not done properly,” said Jared Hibbard-Swanson, food security and safety program manager at OSU Extension. “The OSU helpline has volunteers in all regions of the state who can troubleshoot your preservation project or give you ideas for new methods to store the food you gather, hunt or grow.”
Questions can also be asked through Ask Extension at extension.oregonstate.edu/ask-extension. Get personalized answers from employees and volunteers about anything related to food preservation—from safety concerns to recipes—or peruse the featured Ask Extension questions to see what others have inquired about.
Photo by Alina Kuptsova.
