SWAN QUARTER— Hyde County Cooperative Extension

Family and Consumer Sciences Agent Stacey Midgette is offering to visit church groups, homes, youth groups and other organizations for one purpose — to teach people how to can and preserve fruits and vegetables.

Midgette, who has been canning for about the last four years, said she is offering the program in correlation with her position at the Hyde County Cooperative Extension, teaching residents about food preservation as well as food safety. Midgette charges $10 per person and teaches groups of up to 10 people at a time.

“I’m basically taking the canning class and coming to them,” Midgette said. “I’ve taught canning each summer since I’ve worked here (at the Extension). I’m teaching the correct way to preserve the foods.”

During a session, Midgette said there are two different methods of canning, which are commonly used — water bath canning and pressure canning. The correct method to use is determined by the level of acidity in the particular food you want to preserve. For foods higher in acidity, water bath canning is used and for foods with low acidic levels, you use pressure canning, Midgette said.

“A lot of people around here have their own vegetable gardens and this way they can enjoy the food year-round, save them and preserve them,” Midgette said. “They learn to preserve it the safe way.”

Water bath canning strawberries, for example, requires canners to add their strawberries along with other ingredients like pectin, lemon juice and sugar, Midgette said. Canners would then add this mixture into glass jars and seal them tightly before placing them into a big pot of boiling water for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. Then, you take them out and let them set for at least 12 hours, allowing the jars to properly seal. At that point, you would have strawberry preserves, Midgette said.

“Once you make your recipe, you would just ladle them into the jars and put them into this big pot where the water is already boiling,” Midgette said. “It’s like a big steamer pot. You lower them down into like a metal rack for however long the recipe says.”

A pressure canning process involves foods like string beans, okra and corn and requires much more time than that of water bath canning, Midgette said. The processes are similar, but length of the processes is the main difference. Pressure canning can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

Midgette said an important thing for canners to keep in mind when canning foods is making sure you know when to use a specific method. Foods that have been canned and preserved properly will last up to a year, making it possible for gardeners and fruits and veggie lovers to enjoy these foods throughout the year, especially in the offseason. Around the area, Midgette said people frequently can items such as strawberry jam, pickles, pickled okra, fig preserves and string beans.

If you are interested in participating in the Summer Canning Program in Hyde County, please contact Stacey Midgette at 252-926-4487 or email at Stacey_midgette@ncsu.edu.