Home Canning Seminar Offered at Carson-Newman

While many adults grew up eating home-canned vegetables, jams and preserves, it would seem that the idea of canning has come to be seen as too difficult to make it worthwhile.

In actuality, the process is rather simple. One fills a clean jar with prepared food, fastens a flat lid to a jar with a threaded ring and uses boiling water remove air and seal the product. Once submerged for the appropriate time, the jar is removed and heat begins to escape, thereby removing air. Void of oxygen, the airtight seal will allow storage for up to a year.

Those wishing to learn the skill in a professional kitchen will have the opportunity under the watchful eye of Jefferson County’s University of Tennessee extension agent Melissa Rector LaGraff. She will lead two workshops at Carson-Newman College Tuesday, July 10 and Thursday, July 12.

The two-hour sessions begin at 6 p.m. each evening and will be held in Blye-Poteat Hall’s Themador BOSCH Lab, part of the Ray and Barbara Bible Food and Nutrition Sciences Suite. Attendees will have the opportunity to can green beans in one evening session and strawberry jam in the other. Both pressure canning and water-bath preservation will be covered during the seminar.

The $40 registration fee includes sessions, a food preservation guide, additional materials and the canned items. For more information, or to register, call 865-397-3969.