Canning, Dehydrating, Preserving Workshop.

Today I did another workshop at the Community Gardens and have come home exhausted. 5 ways to preserve fruit and vegetables is not easy, so many things to think of.

Getting ready before visitors arrived.

27 turned up which is not a bad number and all were very interested. My sister Jan, was a great help again, handing out a couple of notes, and moving things out of the way.

Mango

As I was trying my best to promote Fowlers products, Jan had a dehydrator she got at an op shop so bought that in, full of dehydrated puree.

Blueberry and Mango.

Mango and Blueberry which cut up into fruit Rollups. Pieces were served at lunch and it disappeard very quickly. I also took some seeds in of Madagascar beans,  so for  Jan's  "bring a plate" she made patties out of the beans, and served it with salsa. Everyone was keen to try.
Fowlers sent me some catalogues and pamphlets and these were available also for taking.

Showing off the raffle.

We had our raffle there as well, a quilt that Jan made as first prize, John gave an introductory speech welcoming the Gumbaynggirr tribe and generally the do's and don'ts we have to go through each time.

I talked about saving money, jam making, pickles, chutneys and  preserves,bottling and " pressure canning" USA term that enables you to bottle meat and vegetables without vinegar. Plus dehydrating, and vacuuming. I made flash cards to keep me on track. Showed how to put Fowlers rings and lids together to bottle, and also Balls the American brand that is now available in Australia. Plus how a pressure canner works and Fowlers water bath method.

Showing how to use a Spiral Apple Cutter. Always a laugh a minute when I do these demos.

I took in a small amount of jams, pickles, preserved apples and pears I did this past week. One question I asked was "How long they could last if all the local supermarkets closed down"  "Hands up if you could last one week without shopping". About 6 put their hand up and I was quite shocked. No-one for 2 weeks. So many were surprised when I talked about how the Mormons have a programme for storing 1 years supply and the Latter Day Saints, 3 months on their website. This I consider a reasonable figure, but even a month is good. You never know if for some reason you are stuck at home for a length of time, through illness or a natural disaster.

Just a sample of preserves I took in.

Dehydrating was popular, and quite a lot were interested in getting started with that. Mine is a 7 tray one so a good comparison with the round one, and the dehydrated bananas I served up  at lunch disappeared. Also sent around in tiny ziplock bags slices of tomato so they could feel how dehydrated they were, and several herbs, most people would buy. The final bit was talking about vacuuming and storing food whether dehydrated or just bulk flour, rice etc.

This was about vacuuming.

John finished up with his talk on fermenting like Kim chi and  how to make crunchy pickled onions. Friday I picked a whole heap of nasturtium seeds and bottled them with a spices and vinegar mix, so many were intrigued to try them at lunch also. 

Our lucky door prize was a book Fowlers sent and some Seaweed Powder from Eco from the last Workshop. So happy these companies help me.

All in all I was very pleased with the day, even if my brain is a bit empty now.


Till Next Time.