As a way to promote food preservation and healthy eating, Cornell Cooperative Extension will host its first canning workshop in more than a year.

The CCE, a nonprofit educational organization, will host two workshops this month at the New York State Fairgrounds. These sessions will be held on Thursday and Nov. 15 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The events cost $15 to attend and are capped at 15 people.

CCE nutrition specialist Kathleen Bump and CCE natural resource specialist Katherine Korba will run the event.

“Food preservation is especially important for diet quality, access to fresh produce all year long, and it is better for the environment because it decreases food waste,” Bump said. “The whole seasonality of the foods that people can have, like fresh tomatoes in the winter adds variety to someone’s diet.”

The event will start with information on food preservation and then a hands-on learning experience. The beginning of the workshop will feature an overview of different methods of food preservation and its food safety.

Participants will learn about fermentation and boiling water bath canning, and how to make applesauce and sauerkraut to take home. The applesauce will be made from fresh apples and water bath canning so participants get to see the process from cleaning the apples to when they actually end up in the jar.

Water bath canning what keeps food fresh the longest. When food canning, one must use jars that can seal shut and remove bacteria from the jar first.

Bump said people have been inquiring about a food preservation event because the last one was more than a year ago.

“(Food preservation) is something that our organization feels is important to offer to the community, so what we are going to try to do for 2018 based on the harvest,” Bump said. “We want to try to coordinate food preservations in conjunction with the produce that are harvested at that time.”

The CCE is built on four program areas: health and nutrition, natural resources, 4-H Youth Development and agriculture. This workshop ties the two programs of natural resources and health and nutrition together. These are important topics because of the increasing number of home gardens, Bump said.

CCE prioritizes food preservation to help the community eat better. The organization works with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for outreach projects in schools, senior centers and the department of social services.

“It’s going to be a great event, I would encourage people to sign up if they haven’t already,” Bump said. “Go to our website to look for future dates where we will be offering these workshops, they pop up every so often, and our plan for 2018 is that we are going to offer a variety.”

Published on November 5, 2017 at 9:28 pm

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