With greater concern about where your food comes from and how it is processed, home food preservation is making a comeback.  Missouri State Dietetic students enjoyed learning about this and other joys of home canning in a one hour course taught this summer utilizing local crops that were in season.  It has sure been a rough summer for gardening, but we were able to can green beans and stewed tomatoes using the pressure canner and salsas from tomatoes, peaches and mangos (not local, but we loved it) using the boiling water bath canner.  In addition, students made homemade ice cream for a snack break during a hot day and canned dried peaches.  We also made sour pickles, freezer pickles and peach chutney.  Students were able to use our lactic acid fermentation crock and we have homemade sauerkraut fermenting away to be ready just in time for yummy brats this fall!  If you’ve never tried homemade sauerkraut, you should!

This course is one of three home food preservation classes offered in our department taught spring, summer and fall.  These classes are a nice combination of food science, food safety, general nutrition, health benefits and fun with some history thrown in.  Our spring class focused on jams and jellies and our fall class will focus on fall produce and the end of the garden goodies like relishes.  We hope these students will gain an appreciation of home canning methods and how they continue to evolve. Ulitmately, we want them to hopefully encourage and teach these traditions to their families and clients they will work with in their future professions.