Preparing for Summer Food Preservation

How to do it if you are a novice? The USDA and the state/county agricultural extension offices offer the newest, scientifically-based information on how to can, dry, or freeze food. DO NOT go with the 100-year-old books here. They did not know about all the germs we know about now, or how hard some of them are to kill. Here are some trustworthy Internet sites:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/ is the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia. They even offer a free, self-paced online course about food preservation. Good stuff.

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_e/ is another good one. New Mexico State University has a more Southwestern flair, with information about canning green chilies and salsas.

http://foodsafety.cas.psu.edu/lets_preserve.html has information about snap beans, sweet corn, and fruit from Penn State.

Even the canner companies, Presto and Mirro, and the jar companies (Ball has the Famous Blue Book) offer information on their websites. You might want to buy the blue book or another NEW book to guide you, but these free resources really have all the information you need. 

Then you need the appropriate canner(s), jars (recycling those mayo jars will NOT do, especially for pressure canning- keep your couscous away from the bugs in those jars by all means, but don't try to form a vacuum seal except on the thick-walled home canning jars), and new lids with clean rings. Cooling racks and jar tongs and a wide-mouth funnel are also nice.

For freezing, you need containers (freezer bags are fine for a few months, bowls with the appropriate head space for longer). For everything, you need good knives, a cutting board, and ways to wash and sterilize things. I haven't dried anything yet, so I don't know about that- though I may be drying some herbs this summer. Have fun!