Preserving tradition: Lauren Devine enjoys teaching others how to ...

Tag : Canned Vs Fresh Vegetables

That applies to food trends, too, where one of the hottest iscanning, a practice being embraced by more and more folks lookingto save food-budget money while employing the fruits -- not tomention vegetables -- of their garden labor.
"We've actually seen quite a bit of that," said Lauren Devine,whose age, which is 27, belies the fact that she is a skilledcanner whose job is to teach others how to follow her example.
"I would say about 50 percent (of canners she encounters now) are,'I'm new, I'm a newbie,'" said the friendly young woman, whosetitle at Jarden Home Brands is fresh preserving community manager."There's a lot of interest in home canning."
As she spoke, she was standing in the sparkling kitchen of hercompany's new headquarters in Daleville, a roomy place with lots oftable room, top-flight appliances and gleaming pots big enough topreserve row after row of tomatoes and corn in gleaming Ball jars.
Another appeal of canning, however, is anything but flashy.
"My grandma did it, so I watched her," said Devine, who holds adegree in food service management from Purdue University,explaining her early cooking influences.
It was a telling remark.
The sense of a culinary connection to a simpler past remains areason modern cooks embrace canning, she added. There's a sense ofaccomplishment, of self-confidence -- a feel-good factor, if youwill -- that she said is the number one reason people find canningappealing.
Another reason for its appeal?
"There's that sense of control over what you're eating," she said,citing a recent spate of national food/health-related stories."People are scared of what they're getting at the grocery storenow."
Can something yourself, she said, and you know the product wasprepared correctly.
Another reason is even more basic.
Taste.
"Taste is definitely a huge factor," said Devine, who was born andraised in Muncie. "People love the taste of home-canned food,because it's fresh."
But what's the downside?
It's more a matter of perception than anything, she said.
"There's a very big perception that this is a mind-boggling task,"she said, adding that the truth is, it isn't.
Devine usually initiates home canners into the boiling watercanning process, a simplified method that works for fruits,tomatoes, jams, jellies, relishes, pickles, salsa and the like.Pressure canning, an admittedly more exacting process, comes later,she said, and is saved for low-acid foods such as beans, corn andcarrots.
She also teaches the methods to preserve foods via the freezer --little secrets like, when freezing strawberries, arrange themindividually, so they don't all come out in a huge strawberryclump.
Whatever process one is learning, there are important factorsDevine emphasizes.
First, use the right tools. As examples, she cited the jar liftersused to remove jars from pots of scalding water, plus a simplemagnet on the end of a stick that she said is perfect for doing thesame with lids.
"Having the right tools is going to make the process easier," shesaid.
She also recommends having all one's ingredients laid out withineasy reach before beginning to can.
And another rule is particularly important when canning, she added.
Follow the rules.
"You don't want to take shortcuts," she warned, noting that canadversely affect the preserving process.
In the end, she said, learning to can is simply a matter ofacquiring the knowledge from a person like her to do it correctly,and there's no magical formula to that.
"I always ask, 'What do you think?'" she recalled of the people whotake her canning classes. "And they say, 'Wow, that was easy!'"
Contact John Carlson at 213-5824.