Preserving summer's bounty

As a young woman, Helen Speer, spent summers in a stifling kitchen helping her mom preserve the fruits and vegetables the family needed for winter.

Later, after she married, Speer spent more long, hot hours in her Richland kitchen canning produce from her garden and fruit trees.

"I made all different things -- sauces, jams, relish, fruits, everything. It was common for women to put up a good portion of the fruits and vegetables they'd need for winter," said Speer, who's now 88.

That changed after World War II. The can opener, not the canner, became the housewife's ally for putting fruits and veggies on the winter dinner table.

Yet, until 1998 when Speer put her canners on the shelf for the last time, she still spent summers tending cauldrons of boiling water preserving the fruits, jams and other canned foods she enjoyed.

"I feel canning is a marvelous thing. The flavor of home-canned foods is just so much better than what you get at the grocery store," she said.

And that's one of the reasons home preserving seems to be enjoying a renaissance -- though on a smaller scale. Instead of putting up shelves and shelves of tomatoes and peaches, people are opting instead to make specialty foods to share with family and friends.

"Now there's more interest in creative and unique products, jams and jellies and pickles. It's a food adventure," said Lizann Powers-Hammond. She's the Washington State University Extension home economist for Benton and Franklin counties.

The movement for sustainability and "green" practices are also renewing people's interest in food preservation.

"Sustainability encompasses the whole idea of eating local and supporting your local growers. In order to eat locally grown foods in the winter you have to preserve it in some way," said Powers-Hammond.

"Green" factors in, she said, when people see those canning jars that you can reuse, and reuse and reuse.

Another advantage to home food preservation is you control additives, preservatives -- even the amount of salt and sugar in your foods.

"They're not in there for food safety but for food quality. It's processing that makes it safe to eat," said Powers-Hammond.

But she worries that not everyone knows proper processing methods.

"People have the idea that if they can get a jar to seal the food inside is safe to eat. But unless they use -- and follow -- a tested recipe they're just gambling with their health, maybe with their lives," Powers-Hammond said.

Canning is a temperature-time relationship. Yes, heat can destroy bacteria and other organisms, but it needs a certain amount of time to do its job. That's why there are so many different processing times. Each recipe is tailored to the food in the jar.

"If you want to adapt a recipe, call your Extension office. Some recipes can be changed slightly without impacting food safety, others not. My advice is to follow a basic tested recipe when processing and then jazz it up after you open the jar to use it," Powers-Hammond said.

Washington State University Extension and Oregon State University Extension offices have a wide variety of pamphlets and books on food preservation available for purchase. They're listed under county offices in the phone book.

The Kennewick Extension office is at 5600-E W. Canal Drive and the Pasco Extension office is at 404 W. Clark St.

WSU Extension Master Food Preservers are also available to answer questions weekdays at 735-3551 or toll-free at 866-986-4865. They will also be in the Open Class Building at the Benton Franklin Fair and are at the Richland, Kennewick and Pasco farmers markets.

If you prefer to search the internet, look for U.S. Department of Agriculture recipes, those from Ball or any Extension website. You can also find tested recipes at the National Center for Home Food Preservation's website, www.uga.edu/nchfp.

*Loretto J. Hulse: 582-1513; lhulse@tricityherald.com