Lawrence County Food Preservation Workshops

According to the data collected by Kentucky HealthFacts.org, over 1/3 of Lawrence County’s Population is in less than good health. This is an 11% higher rate than Kentucky’s population of adults in less than good health. With this knowledge in mind, the Lawrence County FCS Agent worked in collaboration with the Nutrition Education Program (NEP) to present a 3 day Food Preservation Workshop. The workshops included educational information on: saving money, reducing food waste, limiting sugar and salt, following family traditions but using safe researched methods, and making a better tasting product.

The workshops were held at the Lawrence County Cooperative Extension Service Office on July 18^th through July 20^th. A total of 18 participants were present over the course of the 3 days. In addition to the educational information provided to participants skills in canning, dehydrating, freezing, and water bath canning were practiced and developed. Before the workshops 67% of the participants categorized themselves as “novice” food preservers and 25% considered themselves “intermediate.” After a follow-up assessment only 41% of participants still considered themselves “novice” and 50% considered themselves “intermediate” in food preservation skills, one participant even categorized themselves as “skilled” after the workshops completion.  

At the end of the workshops participants showed and interest in the “So Easy to Preserve” DVDs and Book. Two participants checked out the DVDs and said that they learned a lot of technical information from the DVDs that they did not even know was available. 12 individuals requested “So Easy to Preserve Books.” These were ordered and distributed to the participants by the Lawrence County FCS Agent.  

When talking to those who attended one participant demonstrated a significant behavioral change: “I was scared to death of pressure canners, I didn’t think that I would ever be able to use one because of my fear. But, last night a lady from this class and I went to the store, got canners, and we’ve started canning at home already!” Another participant showed interest in continuing similar workshops in the future saying, “I feel like there are so many interesting things to learn, I will defiantly be coming to the workshops next year.”