Speaker 1: 
All right. Welcome, everyone. So, my name is Candace hair. And I am with Ohio State University Extension and Morrow County, which is based out of Mount Gilliard, our offices, I teach Family and Consumer Sciences. And Melissa, would you like to introduce yourself? Absolutely. Thank you, Candace. I am Melissa Roop. And I am the family consumer science educator in Fulton County, which is the very northern northwestern part of the state. And I'm pleased to be here today. Melissa teaches family consumer sciences as well as the fall, the food preservation team, which we'll be jumping on with us a little bit later to, to help answer some questions. To start us right off for our fall food preservation series. We will be talking today about preserving our fall vegetables. Alright, so focusing on preserving our fall vegetables, we will talk about why do we preserve foods at home, freezing, canning and drying, what's best for you, special safety considerations? And then special safety considerations for Alaska foods, excuse me, and then safe food preservation of vegetables when canning freezing, and drying? We do want to pop up a poll question for you. 

And if Amy's able to do that for us? And our question wants to know, why do you choose or want to preserve foods at home? So we give you some options there about your choice to preserve? Or are you you know wanting to jump into Home Food Preservation. This you know, even though the season we're coming to a close to a certain extent, but definitely wanting to be prepared for 2021. So it's interesting. So we'll wait for a few of you to continue to answer to the best of your ability. And as you can see, one of the options is other reason, and we will ask you to place that in the chat box. If you do have another reason. 

Amy, would you like to end the polling then? Okay. All right. So I'm looking at our results. And it looks like we do have very varied answers, but few of you had stated that preserved produce for later use. And I will say that yes, that is a definite, big reason, especially this year, going to pop this down so I can see better. So we have appear for you why people do preserve food, which you've just seen the multiple reasons out here. We've got some of us want to preserve our garden produce for later use. Some of us want to know and manage what is in our food, you know the ways it is grown, or the ingredients we use and preservation. other individuals receive just such great personal satisfaction from doing food preservation as an activity. Another reason is the storage food is a convenience. 

It is a food, it is food that we have on hand when we need it. And then many times, family consumer as family consumer educators were told that your family's just enjoyed getting together and canning and freezing or drying and spending some time together. And at other times when we're able to neighbors just want to work together, have fun and maybe come together with their harvest and then you know, do some canning or preserving and then split what they have. preserving food at home may require a significant amount of time and energy. So before starting your preservation it's important to consider you know the types of food you want. You plan to preserve and then you know how are they going to fit into your family or your households lifestyle. We want to remind you to only preserve those foods that your family in your household will consume within one year. So let's start out with that basics for food safety. And now more than ever, we are so much more aware of hand washing it is it's just, you know, if it wasn't a habit before it is definitely I have it now. Right, Melissa? Absolutely. 

We talk about food safety and other programs and in everybody's all like you're preaching to the choir, we all know now about just continuously washing our hands. So the most important thing to do is make sure that your hands are clean, and then that everything else in your kitchen is not only clean, but we want it sanitized. So we have a surface area to work with, that we feel comfortable with, that we know that we're getting our final product, when we come out of it is that everything is just well taken care of and well in a position that we feel comfortable with the safety for everybody. So you can use a solution of one tablespoon of unscented liquid chlorine bleach to one gallon of water. Or you can also mix one teaspoon of unscented liquid chlorine bleach with one quart of clean water in like a quartz spray bottle. Miss Melissa is gonna jump right in. 

So when you think about fall vegetables, as Cannes just said you want to you want to reduce the microorganisms in your kitchen, you and make everything as safe and, and, and clean as possible. So we're gonna put a good product in that jar. So when you think about that good product, you want to make sure you're choosing the best possible vegetables to go in into that preservation process. So whether that's in a can of hair drying it or if we are freezing it. So you're going to choose a young tender vegetable, not one that's been in the garden just a little bit too long, or is it that very peak, like it needs to be eaten today or tomorrow, that type of vegetable. If you're going to a farmers market, and they're still a fair number of vegetables available via farmers markets around the state, you're going to choose the ones that are just coming into full ripeness, not the ones that have been ripe for the past week. So choosing those those those perfect vegetables that we're going to go ahead and we're going to wash them thoroughly with cool water just before we're ready to use them. Again, right. In preparation for preserving we're going to wash them right before that. And then we want to also keep in mind how we're going to preserve the vegetables and how we want to intend to use them in the end before we start the preservation process. 

So we're going to prepare them and preserve them according to that attended end use. So what season the Farm Bureau provides this chart is dated what's in season 2018. But not much has changed in the last two years. This is one of the few things that may not have changed. And that's the seasonal impact of our vegetables right. So this this chart gives some guidance of what vegetables are in season during each month of the year. And there are several varieties of dark and leafy greens vegetables that are available during the specific time of the year. However, today we're going to focus primarily on foods such as beans and beets, carrots, those those root vegetables, potatoes, both those white and sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, my personal favorites, turnips, also those gourd type vegetables like your pumpkins and your winter squashes. Some of these are known as root vegetables, those that we talked about those beets, those carrots, those potatoes, and all these foods tend to be from plants that are termed hardy is are all hardy vegetables. There's some slight differences in the growing season based on locations in Ohio. 

So if you're down by the Ohio River versus up here, bordering Michigan, working in the counties in the southern Ohio, our growing season is typically a little longer than that up in the north area where I currently located. So keep in mind your seasons and what's available to you. The link for this chart is in your chat if you would scroll back up and I can also drop it again here shortly. Okay, so there are three methods that we're gonna talk about today for food preservation. And those are canning what we just talked about briefly, freezing and drying. Most likely, the ones that are easiest in the home are we see a lot of freezing and canning and drying is something that we don't do quite as often. But it's still a viable way of, of preserving food depending on how your end use is going to be. So Tomatoes, for example, can be preserved by canning, freezing and drying. They can also be used in creating other things like fruits, breads, like jams, jellies, and marmalades. And the types of things that just tomatoes, but all, all fruits, but so these are all types of things that you can do to put foods by and to preserve them. So let's talk specifically about canning fall vegetables. Let's do a poll question first, though, when you think about fall vegetables, is it true or false? Do you must pressure canned vegetables because of their low acidity? And let me I can put up the poll here. Can you Oh, there it is. Thank you false, that you must keyword being here must preserve vegetables via pressure canning because of the low acidity. Okay, okay. few more seconds. Good. Few more answers. Okay, if if we're watching a horse race your canvas were tied up now. Okay. And you Anyone else want to take a chance at this? 

All right, let's go ahead and close the poll. Okay, so we have three and three, three believes to be true. And we believe this to be false false? The answer is it's absolutely true. You must, pressure can vegetables because of the acidity. Now, not all vegetables are able to be canned or frozen or dried, we're going to focus on those that primarily can be but they all need to be pressure canned if you're going to can them because unless of course the pickled and we'll talk about that in a future week. But the canning process, the acidity is what, let's move on to the next slide. We'll have to Okay, there we go. Okay, so this is all based on the acidity of the vegetable. So the pH greater than 4.6. These are basically generally all vegetables, also meats and soups and some of those types things, mixed canned foods, these all have greater than 4.6 acidity, which makes them needing a higher temperature in order to can them safely to preserve them safely. And this higher temperature can only be achieved through a pressure canner where the pressure is is contained, and the heat rises beyond that 222 boiling is set to 22 to nine to 12. Thank you, I get that mixed up there. My words go ahead of me the 212 boiling point for this region of the United States anyway. And at that boiling point, we can't get any hotter unless we apply pressure. So tomatoes have a pH between four and 4.6, which is still a higher acid, but require additional acidification. And these have the opportunity then to be water bath, because that boiling point temperature can address the microorganisms within that food. 

So if you think about low acid foods, foods that contain very little or no acid, and it is important to follow the approved recipes for canning. And not just adjusting the amount of ingredients in a recipe or perhaps adjusting the time of a recipe. pressure can be required for all low acid foods with PH above 4.6, which is pretty much all vegetables. Boiling water canning is only used for high acid foods, which is those with a pH lower than 4.6. And quite often even like tomatoes, we add a little extra acidification to them, such as vinegar, or lemon juice. To ensure the safety of tomatoes, we do want to add those extras just as a point of reference. So low acid foods let's let's focus there first a bit. The reason the low acid foods have to be pressure can is because that risk of Clostridium botulinum, the C budget line item is it could put the protective heat heat barrier if you will, around those spores. And so then you have to raise that temperature a little bit more to break that down. When conditions are not favorable for organisms to grow like the high heat dryness, the bacteria cells forms a protective structure and that's called a spore. To destroy that spore you have to raise the temperature. Now I just said a little bit ago that water boils in our region anyway at 212 degrees. It must reach a temperature between 240 and 250 degrees to ensure a safe safe product to destroy those microorganisms. If the spores are not destroyed, they will germinate and then produce a toxin the food which when it's stored on the shelf, it continues to grow even in that anaerobic environment. 

So food content can. Food can contain the toxin without being visible. So when you see mold on a slice of bread, it's very obvious it's there, right? It's green, it's gross, it's fuzzy. You know, it's very noticeable. In food, there may not be those physical signs of spoilage. And it can cause a very deadly type of food poisoning that begins usually within the first 72 hours after consuming that contaminated food. So you consume it, you don't feel good a couple days later, and then it can attack your system. So symptoms that could be noticed, are a digestive upset, you don't feel great, you might have blurred or double vision from this. It can be difficult to swallow or breathe. You might even experience things such as paralysis or other types of system shutdowns. And yes, it can lead to death that has happened even in this very decade that we're living in now. It still is a potential hazard of not counting properly. So we need to be very careful to follow pressure canning directions when canning low acid foods. 

Okay, let's go to the next slide. So pressure can is whether purchasing your pressure canner new, or receiving hammy down one or you found it in an auction or the great deal or in a state sale. Your pressure canner should always have these basic things, we should have a flat rack in the bottom. That would raise up your jar from being in here to the bottom, we went to pressure regulator that could be either a dial get gauge or a way to gauge what looks like a heavy weight and the dial gauges in the picture in front of you. We're looking at a vent pipe for pressurizing safety valves and a gasket or a tight metal to metal seal of your lid to your canner these things are all very important. For Tao gauge pressure canner the gauge should be tested annually. This is really important to make sure that the gauge is measuring accurately so that you are getting the appropriate pressure so that that temperature is being reached to make your food safe as it's sealing up in your jobs. Most of our extension offices across the state if you don't are not familiar with your county office, you can go to the website and maybe somebody can pop that in to the chat of where to find your local office for a pressure canner testing. If your office has an offer on nearby one, I'm sure well and we can connect you with those people. So I also want to make just a side note here. There's a big difference. 

I love my pressure cooker. My instapot electric pressure cooker is my new best friend. However, there's a big difference between a pressure canner and a pressure cooker. The recommendation for the USDA pressure processes for low acid food is to use a canner that holds at least four quart sized jars, the USDA, the USDA does not have recommended process for canning in a small pressure cooker. There, there's not testing there's no science to prove this is effective. The research for the USDA pressure processes for vegetables and meat products was conducted in pressure canners that are most similar to what we see us today. 16 quarter larger pressure canner so that is what is evidence base that we know is safe. And we'll give you a product that will be good for your family and your loved ones that consume your food. And I'm going to jump in there real quick in question. 

I would say we do get a lot of questions about those electric multi pressure cookers and canner. So if you have questions at the end, you know, pop them up and we can just address those, which are the answers very similar to what Melissa just said, you know, we USDA what their recommendations are, but thank you. Okay. I was just reading in the chat and someone said that they answered no to needing a pressure canner. And that was kind of a trick question. So a vegetable that does not have added acidity. But an example of added acidity would be a vegetable that's been pickled. And I know different regions of our state in our country have different favorite pickled items, of course are famous, you know, pickled cucumbers, which gives us pickles. But there's other things that are pickled as well. I have a friend who likes pickled green beans, not my favorite food, but we all have our little things that we enjoy that are pickled or that might have that added fermentation and that would be the one exclusion. So I appreciate that point that being pointed out. Okay, so let's talk about the canning process. There's couple ways that we can pack effectively. So the first method is called a raw pack. And this method is used for foods that may lose their shape when cooked. Then also, we want to consider the raw pack food, we put that food directly into the jar raw, and then pour a hot boiling liquid over the top of it. And we want to pack up firmly, but not. So from that we're going to crush it. So then we're going to put the lids on and they are ready for processing at that point. 

Now hot packing, this is a preferred method for most foods. I'm trying to give an example of something will be better raw packed. Do you have an example for that one Canvas, I showed ahead of time. But the best method is usually the hot pack. Because there's a couple of advantages The food is cooked in liquid before packing. And then the cooking liquid is then poured over the food and the jar. So we're keeping all those nutrients and the flavors, all right, they're in the jar, and the jar becomes Fuller, and therefore less floating of the food occurs because of that reduction in the cooking process that might happen from the raw, raw packing method. So the other side of this is that because it is more condensed and you can put more in the jar, fewer jars might be needed to complete your, your canning of your vegetables that you've chosen to put up. So if if the directions only list a hot pack, instruction method, then you need to hot pack, you don't just choose to do a raw pack because that does change your processing time and your process procedure. 

Okay, so headspace, we have three pictures in front of us right now. And each one has a different headspace. We have to the far right, I'm sorry is left. I'm holding my left hand and saying is the right so the far left we have what looks like maybe about a quarter to less than a half an inch of headspace. Then we go to about one inch with our our tomatoes or yellow tomatoes in the center. And then to the far right, we have about one and a quarter inches with our our green beans. So if after packing and putting, and before putting the lids, check the headspace use a measurement tool tool. There's multiple available ball producers an actual tool that they they sell. But you can also use a mark on a utensil or a ruler if you would like to do that as well. So you want to check that headspace or the space left in the top of the jar. So where the last ingredient is to the very top lip of that jars which are measuring. If there's too little food may bubble out during processing, and then possibly that bubbling out process. Like in the picture to the far left a little tiny seeds could bubble out get between the rim and the the flat the lid, the flat lid and prevent it from actually stealing. If there's too much headspace the food at the top is likely to discolor and the jar may not seal properly because the processing time is not long enough to drive all the air out of the jar because the heat drives the air out of the jar which causes the vacuum to come down and seal it shut. Okay, so we will check that. Now that the really important thing with vegetables, all vegetables have a different acidity and a different expectation for processing. 

So you always always always want to go back to the source to find the actual processing time. The USDA canning guide is an excellent choice for doing that. Don't just assume that if beans or this than carrots are going to be the same because they're also a vegetable, I don't assume that potatoes and squash are going to be the same just because they're a vegetable, you want to go back and look at those. An added note here as well because we do have all these vegetables listed. If you are processing anything like a pumpkin or winter squash, or sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, you should never puree or mash them before candy because this becomes too dense and thick and will not actually heat and process appropriately. You want to leave those in chunks so that water juices and fluid can circulate around those pieces and heat all the way through. 

So for a complete list of processing times you would go to a food preservation basics actually by a hotline, and we're going to drop that right into the chat. Candace Can you do that for me? And I also see that Lisa in the chat has mentioned the how to find your local extension office if you have not currently communicate with them prior to this. Okay. So dooring home canned food. It's really important. I think sometimes we get so excited about it. canning process and our beautiful product though, we think I'll never forget doing these green beans this year, the best green beans I've done in the last, you know, five years. But we do forget. And we do maybe can't remember what they did last fall or this fall is this one the jars. So it's really important to make sure that you label all of your jars, you will label them with what it is and the date. And then if the jars seal properly, if they sealed in and there's no bubble, we're going to store that food in a cool, dry, dark place for optimal storage, we're going to avoid storing canned items near any anything hot like heating pipes, or maybe behind your furnace, or really near the furnace area, we're going to also avoid putting them where they could be exposed to extreme hot or cold temperatures. Like we don't want to put them in a garage that's not heated for the winter. For best quality, use home canned foods within that first year. 

So think about that when you're preparing to can, what can my family or the people that I share my food with, consume comfortably in a year's time. If the jars do not seal, which that does happen from time to time, you can repress that food if you do so within 24 hours of when you first processed it, or you can store those jars in the refrigerator overnight. And, and and consume those. If you're in order to properly process, you will have to actually start that process all over and reprocess with new lids. So we're going to heat them back up, we're going to put them back and clean jars, we're going to put on a new lid and reprocess at the full time. If you do not wish to reprocess you can either refrigerate as we just said, or use it in the next three to four days of the latest. Or you could repackage it and store it in the freezer for longer storage. 

Are there any questions about anything we've just covered? Thank you, Kate, for sharing the candy basic fact sheet that link is on there. Now if you would like to follow that link to some of the basic timing, canning times and pressure canning times. Okay. So Candace, I just went through a fast and furious of canning, but what other ways can we preserve fall vegetables? Okay, so we are moving then on to freezing fall vegetables. So if you have ever frozen fall vegetables, just tell us in the chat box, throw that in there. People do food preservation different methods for many different reasons. And for fall vegetables or just freezing altogether, some people say, Well, my household has shrunk. I don't have as many you know people in there anymore, you know kids have moved on. So freezing means that they don't have as much versus candy. However, this year many more people with kids being home again, people might be rethinking with their food preservation process. So do we have any responses at all? Yeah, so Claire just shared that she freezes because she's a beginner canner and probably feels more comfortable, right with the with the freezing process. Kate also shared the freezing basic fact sheet that people can follow for some freezing tips. Okay. Kate also shared that she froze diced green peppers for pizza. What a great way to plan ahead for meal prepping and your freezer. Right. Yeah, that that is great. So yes, freezing is a quick and convenient, easy method of preserving foods in the home. And those foods are just so easy to serve. 

Just like Melissa said that Kate had said too, because most of that preparation is just done beforehand. So if you've chopped up those peppers, hey, they're good to go. And you pull them out and you put them in soups and stews or anything that you're not so concerned about that texture as far as it just popping into something else. So freezing also preserves that nutritive quality so that frozen foods can resemble some fresh foods as well. Okay, so before we freeze our vegetables, we need to blanch them by putting our vegetables in a boiling and boiling water for a limited amount of time. So we have up here about water blanching and steam blanching. So blanching vegetables, we do this to inactivate the enzymes that are known to change that flavor, the color and the nutrients so it is important to do this process. So let me repeat this. It is important to do this process before you go ahead and And package them up. So that your blanching times will vary depending on your vegetables and the times can be found in your USDA books as far as your home canning guide is was your so easy to preserve guide. So you can just look here we'll just quickly look at our water blanching, you're going to put those vegetables in a vigorously boiling water, put on your lid on water should hardly stop boiling or return to a boil within a minute. And then you start that timing and the blanching as soon as that water returns to a boil, and then you're just going to want to pop them out and then you want to cool them in an ice bath immediately and then you want to just get them ready for their be ready to go to start working on. The next step is we'll be packaging them. 

And so when it comes to your packaging, we use use only that moisture proof vapor proof packaging designed for freezing, you're going to pack your vegetables tightly in rigid freezer safe containers or your freezer bags. And then just remember that you know excessive air can lead to that flavor loss or off flavors. So we're going to want to squeeze air from the bags before we seal. And then we want to leave a half inch to one inch headspace because of that expansion in those rigid containers. So you just want to make sure that headspace also is monitored, as well as earlier when Melissa mentioned that for your cans, canning, we can use wide mouth mason jars labeled for canning and labeled for freezing. When you purchase them, it should say on the whole package if they're good for freezing. It's never something you can find on that jar later. So when you purchase know that there for canning and freezing, those mason jars, you would use that freeze fill line marked on the side of the jar. And then once again, those foods need room to expand in that in that freezer. So when frozen foods become too dry, remember when they're tough and they develop that gray spots. 

That's our freezer burn. So we want to be aware of those and know that those different containers like our ice cream containers, the cottage cheese, margarine, those whipped topping containers, they are not designed to protect foods. For long term storage. Those are like a one time use. But not for our long term storage when we're freezing that produce our vegetables that we have are patiently and so carefully, making sure they're safe. Then we have our labels. Again, label and date your product, your label should include the name of the product, please share if you've ever liked just put something in the freezer and and you didn't put a date or labeled it and then later you're like huh, why don't we check this out. Some people also like to go so far as to identify the form of the food, you know, is it whole or half is it you know, just chopped up or quartered. And then you know, that helps him maybe to identify the number of servings and things like that to when they pull that out and defrost. So we're gonna look at two types of packing though as well. You have dry packing, where you pack after the vegetables are blanched, cooled and drained. 

Then you pack quickly, you're going to push that air out once again of those packages and work towards the top. You may need to I want to say burbot when you have it in the container just to get that air and push that out and give it a good squeeze there. We also have tray packing. So you can see our picture here. It's one of the many ways people like to do this so it's not good, these frozen solid pieces together, you can pull things out individually. So after draining, set your individual pieces on a tray. And then once those pieces on the tray are frozen solid, you're going to package them at once. And then you will end up once again using the label and then pop that back into the freezer. And that tray freezing just once again is lets you be able to pull out individual pieces and use as you like so you can maybe you know, put that close it back up, seal it back up. But it keeps those pieces from sticking together and then they're going to cook more quickly than vegetables that are frozen and mass and those things Big masses. So looking at our storage time, recommended storage times for most vegetables will once again just maintain their high quality 12 to 18 months, we've talked before about quality of foods and using your items you've preserved within 12 months here 12 to 18 months at zero degrees Fahrenheit or lower, and then the longer storage of our vegetables that we do, then what's that you do them what's really recommended, it's not the food would not become unsafe, it's just that that quality, that texture, whatever you would, would make it seem attractive and you'd want to eat is just going to be lost. So that quality, that loss of quality is there. And once again, keep just keep up with using your home, frozen vegetables, so they're gone before next year's crop is ready for freezing. 

So we're gonna jump into drying and I think I'll jump started out here and Melissa will bring us home and we got our vegetables for drying. So when moisture is removed, bacteria, yeast and mold can no longer grow causing that food to spoil. So drying also then slows down that action of enzymes we've talked about earlier, it does not stop them totally but those natural substances that cause our foods to ripen, drying will slow down that action. Vegetables may be used the way they are or then you can just hydrate them upon using them pulling them out after you package them and rehydrate them. So we're just going to go briefly over our methods of drying. Vine drying is typically done with beans where you pull the vine of beans out of the garden and you hang them up and you let them dry peppers, particularly hot peppers are fastened to align and left to dry. And in many different cultures you see this happen quite a bit of in drying may be challenging if the oven is needed for general up and use throughout the day, can also be a hazard especially these days when we're all together with small children and animals in the house, so some people are like, because of those factors they may choose not to do any oven drying. But also, this oven drying presents several other issues, the process may take twice as long to dry foods in the oven, then a dehydrator. 

If you have a choice, choose a low humidity day then to do your oven drying a conventional oven just does not have that fan to help circulate that air and you need that air to circulate around that food. So you can leave your door open propped open for two to six inches or you can place a fan near the door to help improve that air circulation. If you've got a convection oven, it does have a fan to circulate the air so that makes it a better choice. If you choose up and drying, you're going to want to have a low heat setting. Specifically really we shoot for the 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If your oven does not go this low, it may end up cooking the food instead of drying it. And then food drives in the oven is usually darker, more brittle and less flavorful. So those are some of the issues when it comes to up and drying. With our dehydrator. The high dehydrate is really designed to dry foods at 140 degrees many people have them these days, they really enjoy them. There are two different types we have horizontal in which that heating element and fan is located on the side of the unit. So all those trays are receiving all that equal heat with a vertical unit. It is that heating element and fan is located either at the top or bottom. So not all those trays are receiving equal heat and then they may end up drying unevenly. 

So in general, we need to make sure that we purchase or select produce in good condition without decay, ready to eat but not overwrite very much. When Melissa spoke in the beginning about selection and the produce that vegetables we're going to use you watch those vegetables well in cold water you want them to drain, you can leave them whole half or slice them into equal pieces. Smaller even pieces are better they will dry better because they'll be drying more evenly than your bigger pieces or those regular sized pieces. Remember, remember to blanch your vegetables and then allow your pieces to be in a single layer on the drying trays. We don't want them really touching so that that air can once again circulate around and move so that they can Move around the food and dry effectively. One of the things that I think we don't talk about often here in Northwest Ohio or in or in Ohio, in general, is that whole issue of sun or solar drying. Who doesn't love sun dried tomatoes in their favorite Italian dishes, right? It's fantastic. But in our area in Ohio and the northern part of the United States, it's not really recommended. 

It's Washington, not really it is not recommended. The low humidity aides the drying process and the low humidity is what you find in more of the southern states. So Ohio weather doesn't always cooperate for drying foods. So we cannot count on warm weather continue with the continuous sunshine. And that low humidity is needed to make that happen. Oh, how weather can be counted on almost from day to day, let alone to have one long stretch of good sun, good heat, low humidity to make that possible. So if you retire to the part of the United States that has that dry, no low humid weather, you could try it possibly there. But we're looking at temperatures of 85 or higher for several days, and that just isn't likely to happen too often in Ohio, definitely not in the fall. 

Right. So yes, thank you for sharing that Melissa too, because there are many people are like I just want to pop that out there. And, and we just want to give you the most up to date fact based information in regards to that's not going to work well for you in Ohio. No, it's not. So and we're gonna jump into drying foods. And when we exact drying times cannot be predicted. Complete drying is important since foods are not completely dry. Or when we don't get those foods completely dry. There's that moisture still there, they're susceptible to mold, and then they may still harbor some, you know harmful pathogens that can lead to that foodborne illness. the drying process is complete when our vegetables are brittle, or they're crumbled when crushed, so that, you know they they're just all ready to go for our packaging. Absolutely. So exact timing is really difficult. So you really need to watch your your your food product as Keanu is saying you want to cut consistently. But if you have a more of a small piece consistently through your drying time might be a little bit less versus if you have a larger piece throughout. And then you might want more. So you have to really watch that look for those signs of dryness. 

So let's talk about packaging that dried food. So once you have it completely dried that you are sure it's brutal, it crumbles when touch it snaps, when you break it, we're going to make sure that that comes down to a complete room temperature, we're going to cool it for 30 to 60 minutes, so it's no longer warm at all, it's not holding the heat, then we're going to take those dried pieces of food, we're going to pack them loosely in either a plastic or glass container. Something that is appropriate that can be sealed appropriately. And then we're going to seal those up tightly. Now in this process, we're going to be not canning them, we're not going to pressure seal them, we're just going to close that jar, preventing humidity entering that space and the temperature of the air to go in and out of that space. And then we're going to take that jar or that bag that we've chosen to store those pieces of dried food, those vegetables, and we're gonna store them in a cool dark place, I'm going to put them in the pantry, we're going to put them up, some people would even choose to take their dried food and store it in the freezer, and that's acceptable as well. So, storing dried vegetables, we recommend that you store up to a year at 60 degrees or below. So again, we're going to consider what can be used in that time period. 

Or if you can't store at that lower temperature of 60 degrees or below. maybe consider only struggling for up to six months or a half a year at a higher temperature of maybe a room temperature of 78 to 80 degrees. If you want to store any items longer, go ahead and do what they suggest a little bit ago and put them in the freezer. That will double preserve them if you will. They're dried but then they're also kept cool in the freezer. glass jars or freezer containers are really good for storing them and if they have a good tight fitting lid that's even better. Plastic freezer bags can work but they're not insect and rodent proof in some cases if you're storing them perhaps in your pantry. Okay. In summary, we have we have to consider as we started out what what we want in the end what is our end product and how much will we use in the next year to 18 months. 

So special care must be taken to ensure The safety of the vegetables during the food preservation process. So whichever way you choose to preserve that you're taking extra care to know how to preserve and take care of that, that food. And due to their low acidity back those vegetables, they must be can in a pressure canner if you're choosing to can them at all. And then Candace do take less two. Oh, yes. So once again, that freezing and drying, if you're not into the whole pressure canning, and you're like, Hey, I or I don't need that many jars, freezing and drying are definite options for your vegetables. And we just want to reiterate all of us here on the food preservation team, reiterate, get a recipe that is an approved, tested recipe and follow those instructions carefully. You're preserving this food for your household and your family. And you're putting so much time and effort and energy into it. Just be prepared. And follow your instructions carefully. And we want you to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy for the next year to come use that food up and just know that you put in a lot of time and effort as well as money. So reap those rewards. Absolutely. So tell us what questions have we stirred up for all of you? What questions do you have that we can maybe answer or have our team of food preservation experts address if our team wants to join us pop on. And I'm just while they're popping on? 

I'm gonna show this and I'll pop us off in a second so we can see everybody. What questions do we have? I'm going to tell you, I think because I sometimes can see the chat somebody had asked about the bleach in the very beginning. I don't know if everybody saw that question in our chat box when we talk about diluting our bleach with a teaspoon or tablespoon. Okay, so there's a couple of really great questions coming in here. Candace, there in the chat. The first one is, I can't see a name care, I think it is asked, Does salsa need to be pressurized or pressure can? Excellent question. Again, when you talk about the acidity level, you want to make sure that you're following a USDA guideline recipe a tested recipe a proven recipe that has been tested for that acidity. And and and then candidate according to the Kenny recommendations. So those recipes can be found on I think we have a fact sheet on that. But it is here it is actually from Ohio, that Lisa has just shared on the Ohio line. But this would have some recipes that can be followed, you want to take caution not to take your own family recipe. 

And can it because it hasn't been tested and we don't know the acidity level of that recipe. So it's better to find one that most closely matches that one and follow that recipe in that canning recommendation, just to ensure that you are preserving it properly and that there are no spores or microorganisms that would linger and cause illness to your family. Now if you had that famous recipe that you just love and you want to share it go ahead and and create it and share it as a fresh recipe and and have them refrigerate it for that three to five days and and and consume it in that short amount of time. There's another question here that says pressure canners can they be? Let's see. I think I missed one. Okay, I'm thinking of getting a pressure canner with a way to gauge any recommendations. So maybe I want to answer this one. I have an answer for it. 

But I think it's personal preference. I I personally appreciate my weighted gauge because I listen to it, and I can hear it dance. Dial is that a funny way of saying it. But a dial gauge, you have to keep your eyes on it right you have to make sure that you're maintaining your pressure, you're maintaining your heat so that your gauges staying at the right pressure. Where your weighted gauge if you're dancing and it's doing intermittent dancing, you know you're at the right pressure and you can hear it without having your eyes on your gauge. So again, some people don't trust the dancing method, have a have a way to gauge and they prefer to see that dial on a number. So again, it's personal preference. Another Oh Go ahead. Okay, and I was gonna say growing up I still remember my brother, I got 30 more in that dance engage. And for me, I've just preferred the dial just because I'm good with being on there. But as Melissa said, and I know one of one person are our food preservation team, she likes that because she can be in another room. 

And she has, you know, you you get used to hearing how many times that that gauge is going off per minute and you it just becomes ingrained in you, right innate, you just know where other people are, like, they're a little more concerned about keeping an eye on it. So that's for me for adult gauge. Absolutely. If Kate wants to share as well, I see. Yeah, her thoughts. Ladies, I'm gonna chime in here, since you just that was what you were talking about me right there. So the same person that wrote in about thinking about getting a way to gauge also wrote a question and that they have a smooth top stove. Also interesting, how I just popped on the guidance from the National Center in the chat about canning on smooth top stoves. So essentially, their overall times there's my phone is to really look at your manufacturer's directions for your individual stove. And you really want to pay attention to your individual stove. And manufacturer's directions, because you have some major concern with the weight of the canner, the amount of heat that it will be generated, it may overheat a burner. There's some major considerations the size of the burner the size of the canner, lots of issues. Also, we wanna make sure that you don't have a flat. Alright, turn that phone off. Sorry. Um, so just lots of considerations. I'm specifically thinking about, you may want to think about some other options if you only have a flattop stove. So lots of things to think about there. I appreciate the fact, as you said, especially if you're going out and purchasing a new canner, a new two canner to look at those recommendations and know what type of stove you have and make a very conscientious decision based on the two things working together. I think Claire says I wanted I want a way to add one, any suggested brands to get also want to be sure it can be used in a glass tap. Thank you for answering. 

So the way to gauge, I don't know that I have a specific brand. But consider how you're going to use it and consider that brand can be used on your type of stove. Just kind of back to that last question. Read the care instructions on it read the canning recommendations for use and to see if it works best for you. Either. Any other suggestions for her on that the three major brands of cahners do all makeweight engages. So completely personal preference there. So I think those are all options. Now this is an interesting question her follow up questions. They don't make electric ones question mark. Actually, they just started coming out with them. And I haven't had a chance to play with those. Kate had you. I think you were working on investigating that? Well, you're not. So within the past year, one of the manufacturers of pressure canners has come out with an electric pressure canner. Now, that the first statement I just made there is that kind of the caveat within the past year, so therefore there's really no let's say history on it. Like we don't know how good they are. We don't know how accurate they are. And you want to we want to trust this manufacturer because they've been around for a very long time. But it's new to the market. And so we're very hesitant, and it's pricey and it's already sold out. 

So it's one of those that I don't think you can get your hands on one even if even though they officially exist. And I think what you just said is so valuable. There's not history and we don't know the potential care that needs to be done in this process. Nor have any of our recipes and USDA founding research been completed on these particular machines. So are appliances I should say. So we're going to ask and we're gonna ask you to stay tuned and see what happens with USDA and in the end How they come through and, and because they are manufactured just specifically for canning, which is great, and not a multi kind of cooking unit. But yeah, so stay tuned and we may next year at this time have different information for you regarding that. So true. Okay, are there any other questions that I'm missing in the chat that maybe I'll see anything in the chat that we might have missed? Not we, I was gonna say we do, we did put a lot of information in the chat for you as far as the where you can go to online those links, but just know contact your extension office, there is one in all in every county and then and ask them those questions and they may put you in touch up in one of us on the food preservation team and then we can direct you further we enjoy ain't answering canning questions, food preservation questions all year long. Absolutely. And again, key has just put up if you don't know your address, or the location or the website of your local extension office, that link is now in the chat. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and stop recording and