Safely Preserving Your Work
Growing fruits and vegetables is a satisfying activity that can yield a bumper crop. After all the work of planting, weeding and harvest, we prefer not to toss extra produce on the compost pile. Most of us give friends and family a considerable amount of cucumbers, squash, tomatoes and corn. Gospel Rescue Mission (326 S 2 and 918-682-3489) welcomes produce donations to feed local families in need. When it comes to preserving and storing some of the extra to use over the winter, gardeners each have a preferred method. To keep food safe and nutritious, four problems must be conquered. (See Piers Warren reference below.) 1) Enzymes cause food to begin to lose nutritional value and to spoil quickly. Extreme heat used for canning stops enzyme action, as does freezing. 2) Bacteria cause most food poisoning and their growth can be stopped through freezing, high heat, and high concentrations of sugar, salt or acid used for pickling. 3) Yeasts cause the kind of food spoilage seen when jam ferme...
