Under Pressure!

I’ve been feeling a little under pressure lately.  I suppose it is from things pushing at me from a few different directions, both at work and in my personal life.  I bet I’m not alone. We probably all have seasons of our lives that are more pressure filled. I think of the years I spent growing up on a farm north of Joplin.  This time of year seemed full of pressure trying to get the crop in, and when the weather wasn’t cooperating, it was worse. No matter the pressure of the season, the farm girl in me still loves harvest time.

Now that I’m an Extension agent, harvest makes me think of pressure in a different way.  People around the area are harvesting garden crops, and canning is underway.  If you are canning any low-acid foods, you’ll be using a pressure canner.  Pressure canners typically come in either dial-gauge or weighted-gauge.  A dial-gauge canner should be tested yearly to make sure it reads correctly, ensuring that you are not under-processing food.  Under-processing can result not only in reduced quality, but also in lower temperatures that allow some terrible things to grow in that jar of low-acid canned food.  Among the scariest and deadliest is botulinum toxin.  If you are doing canning with a dial-gauge canner, it is totally worth the 15 minutes at the Extension Office to get your canner gauge tested.  It absolutely beats botulism, which, if you survive, will take way more than 15 months recovery!

Most Extension offices test canners for free.  Extension also offers guidance and assistance for home canners.  Last year, I had the good fortune of being able to spend two days learning from Elizabeth Andress, an Extension Food Safety Specialist and the leading authority on home canning in the nation.  Dr. Andress explained the many testing procedures in place before the USDA authorizes recipes for home canning.  Reliable and tested home canning recipes and procedures can be found in the latest editions of So Easy to Preserve, the USDA Guide to Home Canning (which is available free for download on the web) and the latest editions of the Ball Blue Book and Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  MSU Extension also has Montguides available on our website with resources for the home preserver.  Any editions of the above sources from prior to 2006 should be discarded.  From elevation to product density to heat penetration to pressure, there are all kinds of science considerations in canning. Like all science, our abilities and equipment change over time.  You wouldn’t want a doctor relying on the science from 1930 to perform surgery on you, would you?  Yet, you’d be surprised at how many people still want to continue to use Great Aunt Edna’s Salsa recipe from that same decade!

If you need me to pressure you into using the most current canning methods, give me a call and remember to get your pressure canners tested this season.  

Additional Resources:
National Center for Home Food Preservation
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
Montguides on Food Preservation -- Download Free!