HOT SPRINGS — Canning or freezing fresh produce, maybe even fruits and vegetables grown at home, is not only economical and nutritious - it’s the American way.
Yet for about two generations now, big grocery stores, two-career families and the time restraints of modern life have kept people out of the kitchen and away from canning rings, vinegar mixes and the satisfying pop of a can lid sealing itself.
“The late baby boomers and the group just after them seemed to have missed out on home canning,” said Phyllis Pipkin, a teacher of such skills with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and president of the Arkansas Extension Homemakers Council. “They may have seen their grandmothers or mothers do it, but they don’t know the particulars to do it themselves.”
Pipkin passed along those particulars to a group of around 20 people in a class sponsored by the Garland County EHC at the Garland County Fairgrounds in Hot Springs on Wednesday morning.
“I’m thrilled people are looking to learn this again,” Pipkin said as she cut the tips off green beans to make pickled beans.
“People want to eat locally and have more control over their food sources.”
She also said it is fun and fulfilling for people to look at a jar of canned vegetables or a half-pint container of jam that they made themselves.
Many of the students in the class are retired, but admitted they were familiar with canning and preserving food but had never done it.
“I was raised on a farm, the family ran a dairy near England, and we ate what came out of our garden,” said Paul Graves of Hot Springs. “I helped my wife and mom can with a pressure cooker, but I didn’t do it myself.”
For the class, Graves donned an apron and took up knife, tongs and glass jars to can beans and make strawberry-kiwi jam.
His wife, Darlene Graves, was also there, saying she needed more instructions.
“We both pastored churches and worked, so we never had the time to really learn,” she said.
Another student in the class, Wanda Derenouard, is originally from New Orleans but now lives in Hot Springs. She said she is “building a food-storage program” at her home.
“I want to have a couple of months’ worth of food ready if something were to happen,” she said.
The class pickled green beans using trimmed green beans about 4 inches long - just long enough to fit in a pint jar. The students then added dill seeds, a clove of garlic and a touch of cayenne pepper.
“This much pepper doesn’t make it hot,” Pipkin said, “but it adds a zip or something extra to the beans.”
A boiling mixture of water, vinegar and salt was poured over the beans. Students then picked up can lids and rims from where they had been sterilized in boiling water and used them to close the jars.
Pipkin followed the pouring process closely to make sure the mixture covered the beans and there were no air bubbles.
Then the cans were placed in a boiling-water bath for five minutes.
Pipkin said the beans should be put away for two weeks before opening the jar. She said the beans are good in salads or by themselves, and make a good substitute for a celery stick in Bloody Mary cocktails.
After the beans were placed on a cart to cool, the students turned their attention to making jam.
“Through the hands-on class, students gain experience in jam-making from start to finish,” said Lisa Washburn, the Garland County extension agent for family and consumer sciences who organized the class. Washburn said students learn the techniques to ensure successful home canning.
“I also showed them a trick about making jam that is not in the books,” Pipkin said,but that I learned while helping my mother when I was a teenager.”
In most years, the canning classes are held only once a year, but to commemorate the 100th year of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, Pipkin said plans are being made for another class to be held later in the summer.
For more information about the Garland County Extension program, call (501) 623-5756.
Staff writer Wayne Bryan can be reached at (501) 244-4460 or wbryan@arkansasonline.com.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 131 on 05/27/2012