June 28, 2008
Canning Foods at Home
Canning is an important, safe method of food preservation if practiced properly. The canning process involves placing foods in jars or cans and heating them to a temperature that destroys microorganisms that could be a health hazard or cause the food to spoil. Canning also inactivates enzymes that could cause the food to spoil. Air is driven from the jar or can during heating and as it cools a vacuum seal is formed. This vacuum seal prevents air from getting back into the product bringing with it microorganisms to re-contaminate the food.
Canning Basics
There are two safe ways of canning, depending on the type of food being canned. These are the boiling water bath method and the pressure canner method. The boiling water bath method is safe for fruits, tomatoes and pickles as well as jams, jellies and other preserves. In this method, jars of food are heated completely covered with boiling water (212 F at sea level).
Pressure canning is the only safe method of canning vegetables, meats, poultry and seafood. Jars of food are placed in 2 to 3 inches of water in a pressure canner which is heated to a temperature of at least 240 F. This temperature can only be reached in a pressure canner.
Checking and Testing Your Pressure Canners
Your home pressure canner should be checked and tested annually to ensure its proper working condition. University of Illinois Extension provides this service free of charge in participating counties. Contact your local Extension Office to find out where pressure canners may be tested in your area.Posted by Ron Wolford at 9:06 PM | Permalink |
June 24, 2008
MarketMaker Website Helps Buyers in Search of Safe Tomatoes
A recent national Salmonella outbreak in some tomato varieties has sent grocery stores, restaurants and tomato product producers scrambling to find sources. One place they've been able to connect with tomato growers is through the MarketMaker website."The local tomato farmers listed on the MarketMaker website are source-verified, so consumers know where the tomatoes came from and how they were grown," said Dar Knipe, University of Illinois Extension marketing specialist.
Sandy Shetler is the website manager for MarketMaker. "I received a call from a vegetable farmer in Lancaster, Ohio who is one of the tomato producers listed on MarketMaker. He had been contacted by someone who needed uncontaminated tomatoes. His tomatoes were just turning green so he referred them to a producer in southern Illinois whose crop was a few weeks ahead of his.
"Kentucky, Georgia and Mississippi are farther south and may have tomatoes ready to sell and they all have live websites with searchable databases of producers," said Shetler. "This is a prime example of when something like the Salmonella outbreak happens, people can visit the website to find local, source-verified food."
The website began as an online database of Illinois businesses but has expanded to include 10 states whose websites are up and running: Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi, and Georgia. Colorado, Washington D.C. and South Carolina have websites that are under construction.
Knipe said that they partner with Land Grant Universities because they have Extension personnel. "We train the Extension educators how to enroll new entries, then they go out to the farmers and other producers and teach them how to get their business listed on the MarketMaker website and how to update their information," she said.
There is no charge associated with having a business listed on the site.
Individuals can use the MarketMaker website to search for restaurants or places to buy things like maple syrup, wine and produce direct and producers can search for farmers' markets, grocery stores and other outlets to sell their food products.
The national website is located at http://national.marketmaker.uiuc.edu/. Participating states are highlighted, making it easy for users to navigate from state to state and get data from a combination of states or from just one area.
For more information about MarketMaker, contact any member of the development team: Darlene Knipe (dknipe@uiuc.edu; 309-792-2500), Gina Backes (backes@uiuc.edu; 309-796-0512), Pat Curry (curry@uiuc.edu; 217-782-6515) or Peter Goldsmith (pgoldsmi@uiuc.edu; 217-333-5131).
MarketMaker is a collaboration between the University of Illinois Initiative for the Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture (IDEA), the Illinois Department of Agriculture and C-FAR (Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research). The project was funded by the Illinois Department of Agriculture, University of Illinois Extension, and the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR).
Source: Darlene Knipe, Extension Specialist, Marketing and Business Development, dknipe@uiuc.edu
Posted by Ron Wolford at 7:57 PM | Permalink |
May 26, 2008
Tips for Freezing Strawberries
Freezing is one of the best ways to preserve strawberries. Freezing will retain more of the original flavor, color, texture and nutritional value of fruits than any other home food preservation method when processed correctly.
But according to Jananne Finck, University of Illinois Extension nutrition and wellness educator, we need to follow certain steps to ensure the best possible product.
According to information from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, berries should be frozen on the same day they are harvested. Select fully ripe, deep red, firm berries. Wash and remove caps. Do not allow the fruit to soak in the water; instead, rinse the berries with cool water.
There are different options for freezing strawberries. You can freeze berries with or without sugar and leave them whole, sliced or crushed.
The method of freezing is determined by personal preference. A sugar or syrup pack is recommended to maintain the texture and flavor of fruit; but, for those watching their sugar intake, sugar can be left out, or artificial sweeteners can be substituted.
For a whole berry sugar pack, add 3/4 cup sugar to 1 quart (1 1/3 pounds) strawberries and mix thoroughly. Stir until most of the sugar is dissolved or let stand for 15 minutes. Put into containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal, label and freeze.
If whole berries in a syrup pack are preferred, put berries into containers and cover with cold syrup— leaving 1/2 to 1 1/2 inch headspace.
To make a medium syrup (30 percent), dissolve 1 3/4 cups sugar in 4 cups lukewarm water, mixing until the solution is clear. Chill syrup before using. Yield is about 5 cups of syrup.
For unsweetened packs, the dry pack is good. Simply pack the fruit into a container, seal, label and freeze.
A tray pack is an alternative that makes the fruit easier to remove from the container. Simply spread a single layer of prepared berries on shallow trays and freeze. After a couple hours, when the fruit is frozen, promptly package, label and return to the freezer. The fruit pieces remain loose and can be poured from the container, and the package can be reclosed. Be sure to package the fruit as soon as it is frozen to prevent freezer burn.
In addition to a dry pack, unsweetened fruit can be packed in water, unsweetened juice or pectin syrup. The pectin syrup is often used for fruits such as strawberries, which retain texture better than if frozen in water or juice.
To prepare pectin syrup, combine 1 package powdered pectin and 1 cup water in a saucepan. Heat to boiling and boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and add 1 3/4 cups water. Cool. This makes about 3 cups of moderately thick syrup.
Sugar substitutes may be used in any of the unsweetened packs or added just before serving. If added before freezing, note that artificial sweeteners do not furnish the beneficial effects of sugar, such as color protection and thickness of syrup. Follow the directions on the sweetener container to determine the amount needed.
For more information on freezing strawberries and other foods, visit the NCHFP website at www.homefoodpreservation.com.
Source: Jananne Finck, Extension Educator, Nutrition and Wellness, finckj@uiuc.edu
Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:17 PM | Permalink |
January 4, 2008
Free Online Food Preservation Course
Announcing a free, self-paced, online course for those wanting to learn more about home canning and preservation.
- Introduction to Food Preservation
- General Canning
- Canning Acid Foods
- Canning Low-Acid Foods
This course is offered in the University of Georgia WebCT system. UGA requires registration for you to receive a login.
Posted by Ron Wolford at 5:34 PM | Permalink |
December 11, 2007
Food Safety Music Videos
Nancy Kreith, University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Coordinator emailed me this web site a couple of weeks ago. The focus of the site is to promote food safety. The site uses musical animations to get their message across to the viewer. The animations were produced at New Mexico State University as part of USDA CSREES National Integrated Food Safety Initiative Project Number CD-D-FST-7057-CG.
The project title is "Improving Food Safety Education Through Use of Music-Based Curricula" and the Project Director is Carl Winter at the University of California, Davis. Other cooperating educational institutions on the project are the University of Idaho, Clemson University, the University of Delaware, and North Carolina State University.
My favorite video is "Don't be a Gambler" which shows you how to properly prepare burgers. Another great video especially for kids is "You Better Wash Your Hands" sung to the Beatles song, "I Want Hold Your Hand" Other videos include "We Are the Microbes", "Don't Get Sticky Wit It", "Stomachache Tonight" and "Veggie Believer".
Posted by Ron Wolford at 4:37 PM | Permalink |
