Canning supplies bought locally from The Hardware Inc., Hueysville |
The St Vincent Mission program had their Food Preservation
class recently at the David School right down the road from the Mission. The
David School focuses on teens who for one reason or another may not graduate
high school. They have small classes and are able to work with the students one
on one to better meet their needs. They also have a big kitchen so it was a
great place for our class.
Stringing, snapping and storytelling |
We started out the day with cleaning, stringing and snapping
a half bushel of white half runner beans donated by Todd Howard. Emily
Shepherd, one of our participants, led the class and it was a great time of visiting
and sharing-just like in the olden days. One story Emily told was about how
when she and her husband Roger moved back to the homeplace they would do all
their canning in a wash tub outside over a fire. I can’t even imagine tending a
fire all day in mid-August putting up canned goods.
After we got the beans ready, I did a short presentation on
dehydrating and freezing and we had lunch-chicken tenders from Sharon’s, the
local and only restaurant in David, KY along with veggies from the Mission’s
community garden. (What part of the chicken is a tender anyway?) The David
School teachers joined us for lunch where I passed around samples of fermented
tomatoes. Todd had put up five gallons of them a few days earlier and I asked
him if we could try them out at the class. The best part was watching people’s
expressions when they tasted the tomatoes. The first thing you saw was the
reaction to the aroma, which is stronger than expected, then the facial
expressions. I did warn them that Todd and Gary thought they had enough
tomatoes for a 10 gallon crock but ended up with 5 gallons of tomatoes instead.
Lesson learned: measure the tomatoes before putting in the salt.
Bobby, Marilyn, Carol and Mike listen to Emily |
After lunch it was time to pressure can our beans. Emily
took us to the kitchen and showed us all the safety measures built into the
pressure canner before filling it up and setting it on the stove to do its
thing. Only it didn’t. After an hour and twenty minutes of trying to build up
pressure we decided to throw in the towel and call it a day. I took the canner
home with me and following Emily’s steps successfully canned my first batch of
beans. We aren’t sure but the general consensus is that the draft hood over the
stove created too much draft for the canner. The instructions did say, “Keep
canner out of drafts”.
"I just don't understand why it won't build up pressure." |
All in all it was a fun time with friends which is what usually
happens at most of our Grow Appalachia classes and gatherings. Next up, Healthy
Cooking.
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