Food Preservation
Pressure canners can be tested all year at Purdue Extension Floyd County. Be sure to make an appointment today! Canning can be a fun and economical way to make fresh foods available year-round! The two safe methods of canning food at home are boiling water bath canning and pressure canning. Whether a food is high acid or low acid indicates what type of processing method should be used. Use this fact sheet to understand the correct procedures for canning foods at home.
Freezing is a quick, convenient, and easy method of preserving foods in the home. Frozen foods are easy to serve because most of the preparation is done before freezing. Freezing preserves nutritive quality so that frozen foods resemble fresh foods.
Learn how to properly prepare and store vegetables here.
Meat and poultry can be preserved for longer-term storage through canning, drying, or freezing. These preservation techniques provide the opportunity to safely consume meat and poultry products well beyond the time they were harvested or brought home from the store.
Herbs are a great, healthy way to add flavor into your meals. Leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds of herbs can all be dried and preserved for future use when the plant is not longer able to grow. Some methods include air-drying, seed harvesting, dehydrator drying, and microwave drying. Sun drying and oven are other ways of drying herbs but they have limitations.
Be sure to check out our list of Which Herbs with Which Foods. It will help you decide what herbs you might want to preserve for your future meals!