The growing season is upon us and whether you purchased a Bigfoot CSA share, are growing your own produce, or are picking up the local bounty at the Marion Tailgate market, it can be nice to learn new ways of fixing what you have.  Look for us when you come to pick up your CSA.  We will be having cooking demos and even may have a hand-on class or two that highlight what’s available that week.  We’ll also be at the Marion Tailgate market during June and parts of July and August so stop by and try a tasty sample from one of our healthy recipes.

Another way to use our summer bounty is to preserve it for later in the year.  When deciding how you want to preserve you want to keep safety in mind.  Not all recipes and ways of preserving on the internet are safe and some can carry unseen risks.  You want to use researched recipes and resources. One of the best resources to start with is the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  This site has extensive resources and some of the most up-to-date information on safe food preservation, whether it is boiling water bath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, fermentation, pickling or freezing.

You can find recipes and publications that help guide you in safe procedures which prevent risks such as botulism that can occur when canning low acid foods incorrectly.  Their recipes are also tested for quality as well as safety.  Under their FAQ section they even address Burning Issues and share information around various situations and questions that people have from “Canning with Portable Burners” to “Using Atmospheric Steam Canners”.

If you have specific questions or want more personal advice, please call our office at (828) 652-8104 or email Cathy Hohenstein, our Family and Consumer Science Agent, at cathy_hohenstein@ncsu.edu.

To find a Hands-On class in McDowell or other counties close by check out this schedule.

So I hope you enjoy the Summer months and especially the abundance of healthy foods that is grown right here close to home.