Library Hosts Latest Lunch & Learn on Preserving Your Garden
The Marshall County Public Library’s most recent Lunch & Learn session was on canning and preserving food. Community members came out to ask questions to a guest panel that provided some great insight on the subject.
Phyllis Blackwell and Vicki Wynn led the workshop that was designed to inform attendees on the proper ways to can and store food. The two provided tips to safely prepare and process food straight from the garden for freezing and canning.
Blackwell, who brought samples of homemade jam, offered some advice on ways to dry and preserve food at home. Wynn, of the Marshall Co. Extension Office, explained techniques on how to properly can and freeze food. Wynn also mentioned how helpful your local extension office can be when you need information or have questions on the basics of food preparation.
Whether a veteran or newcomer, food-canning knowledge is a very valuable resource to have that is here to stay. According to Steve Hungsberg, director of marketing at Jarden Home Brands (which licenses Ball Home Canning), if you laid the number of mason jars sold in 2013 end to end, they'd go 90% of the way around the Earth.
The library provided a canning book as a door prize along with lunch for those in the audience. “It’s really nice to be able to offer community members the opportunity to get together and ask questions on specific foods that they are growing at home,” library staff member, Ginger Russell said. For more information on the next Lunch and Learn in August covering the topic of fall landscape, please call 270-527-9969 or visit www.marshallcolibrary.org.