Updating My Canning Skills

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Pickled Okra

I have been canning since I was a child (thanks, Mom), so I went to the canning class at the county extension service not expecting to learn anything.   I just wanted to have a good time. I left the class with lots of new information and a new canning book.  If you learned to can years ago, or are using old canning books, it will be worth the money to invest in a new canning book.  There have been some changes made for safe canning that I was not aware of.  The teacher recommended that we all get a current edition of either the .USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning or the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.  She had the newest addition of the Complete Guide to Home Canning, that has not been released yet, on sale for $12.00, so I have a new cookbook for my library.  I will have to get the Ball book later.  My current version of the Ball book is my mother's version from the 1960's.  The teacher recommended that we compare the recipes in our old books to the new recipes and adjust as necessary.  For example, when canning tomatoes my old books did not add lemon juice to increase the acidity, but it is now advised to add bottled lemon juice to canned tomatoes.  Bottled lemon juice has a consistent acidity, so we should be using it for canning.

The teacher, Dr. Keith, was a wonderful teacher.  She reminded me of Auntie Em, of The Wizard of Oz fame.  She was dressed in a floral cotton shirtdress and an apron.  Her long gray hair was pulled up into a bun and she had on practical shoes.  As I was reflecting on how she looked like Norman Rockwell's grandmother, I realized she was probably my age. 

Dr. Keith was a wealth of information.  She was able to answer all of our off the wall questions without missing a beat.  She was raised on a farm and told lots of stories as she talked.  My favorite was a story about her father.  Every year he would plant a row of okra and parsnips. Every year he would take one bite of the harvest, and never eat it again.  Dr. Keith asked her father why he kept planting okra and parsnips, he replied,  "I just want to make sure I still don't like them."  She told us this story as she prepared pickled okra, a vegetable she still does not like.  She also prepared strawberry/cherry jam.  Yummy.  

This is the first year I have seen canning classes offered at the extension service so I asked her why.  She said she tried offering classes 10 years ago, but no one was interested.  This year she has been getting calls from churches and homeschool groups asking for lessons, so she tried offering classes at the extension service and there was interest.  There were 15 people in my class, and a number of people did not show up.  I guess people are starting to wake up.  She thought the interest may have increased due to the bad hurricane season we had several years ago.  People lost what was in their freezers, so they are looking for alternatives.

We got to taste several different types of canned pickles and jams at the end of class.  I tasted zucchini pickles for the first time.  They will definitely become a standard in my kitchen.