Twenty-six youth and one adult (teacher) participated in a two-day food preservation series in Green County. On day one, the Family and Consumer Sciences agent presented a lesson over “The Basics of Home Food Preservation” to the Intro to Greenhouse and Plant Science Class at the local highschool. This presentation consisted of food safety procedures regarding botulism, learning about various equipment that would be used, researched based resources and so much more.

On day two, the FCS agent demonstrated the boiling water bath process along with preparing the ingredients, equipment, and materials. Five student volunteers helped with filling the jars with the prepared traditional salsa recipe and loading them into the boiling water bath canner. While the salsa was processing in the water bath canner, students got to sample the recipe and discuss any modifications that would be acceptable in this recipe. Some of those modifications were the different varieties of hot peppers (jalapenos, habaneros, serrano) and different varieties of tomatoes (roma, heirloom, purple cherokee). Students were able to make that classroom connection of understanding the finished product of your produce before knowing what varieties to grow for the highschool greenhouse next spring.

By the end of the series, students had successfully seen and participated in a demonstration of Food Preservation: Canning. 100% of the students that participated and sampled the recipe mentioned that they learned at least one thing that they didn’t understand before. Some of those responses consisted of “I may not go home and can something but at least I know how to make salsa now”, “Maybe I can help my grandma with canning next year” and so much more!