Family Living
Focus
by
AUetta Schadler
Lebanon Co. Extension
Get Ready For Food
Preservation Season
Food preservation season is al
most upon us. Some of you early
birds may already have frozen
rhubarb or asparagus. As you pre
pare for this preservation season
there are a few things you should
think about to improve your out
comes.
What Is Leftover
From Last Year?
In the freezer:
• Check the types of food that
are still remaining. Hopefully, you
will have dated everything in the
freezer to be able to tell when you
froze the food. It should be your
goal to use foods within the year
you froze them. When food is in
the freezer longer than a year the
quality of the items will slowly
J *
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Closeout Price $ 599 95
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Cash Price
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deteriorate. Foods containing fat
may develop off flavors as the fat
becomes somewhat rancid. Vege
tables, fruits, beef and poultry
keep very well in a zero degree
freezer for a year.
• Can you tell what’s left over?
Some foods in transparent wrap
ping are pretty easy to identify,
others are not "Mystery Boxes”
that are unidentified as to contents
and date are a waste of freezer
space can also be an adventure.
I know of one person who added a
tub of what she thought was tur
key stock to a soup, only to dis
cover it was the leftover Apricot
Sours from New Year’s Eve! If
you have unidentified packages,
take the pledge to do better this
year!
• Why are the foods leftover?
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FASHION BED ,
Your Choice -
Full, Queen, King I
Sold Wey Under [gjlfl i
£2 Wholesale)
Closeout PriceM29 95
k *
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I Available in Blue, !,0 I
, Beige, Green M I
1 Reg. Retail $149.95 J ‘
[ Caah Price $129.88
t With Coupon ft"
I $Q 9 04
r "DUAL RECLINING n ,
SOFA 1
Selection of (fT
Covers I
Closeout Price *4O9 9 .
k. #2 J
FLASHLIGHT - BLACK I
Reg Retail $ll 00
£e%oo *
Closeout Price O (
#2 w/ Batteries
1 Y>-
Reg. Retail $2589.95
VJ Our Cash Price r T2fl9* I
Specie. $ 949“ 1
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LOFA SOFA #2 I
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Several Colors 'N ■ ) •
To Choose From . I 1
Reg. Retail $799.95 .
Our Price $379.95 j. ng . I *
Special *349 , *
WASHINGTON 150 A J*
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Reg. Price $749.95
TS \ . \T\'i Closeout 1
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r 5 PIECE DINETTE SET
I CLOSEOUT
,30”X60” Solid Oak Table _JT jf.
'Reg. PricesBB9.9s . WMk'-JKI
l our price
i*249 m ffW
Available in Green/Natural and WbiteiNatural ,
#2 '
5-PIECE DINETTE V
CLOSEOUT rf*
• AlmoncVßrasa •
•Glass Top 1 \
>V7Vv • 30”x60” Table .u.
(ta fIHL r Dill Reg Retail $469 9S 1 *
h|E» Our Low I *
$ 139 9S If
J#2 ' ' iA(
PRICES INCLUDE BOTH PIECES
BIG SELECTION OF
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HUNDREDS OF OTHER ITEMS!
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lsi ok;
Did you overestimate your fami
ly’s like for a specific food? May
be you will want to freeze less of
that food this year and more of
food that was used up first. Figure
how many times a week and how
many weeks in a year you want to
serve this food when you decide
how much to freeze.
For Canning;
• Check the canning shelves to
see how much and what types of
foods remain. These foods should
also have been labeled. Canned
goods should be used within the
year of canning. Longer storage
will cause the foods to lose color,
change texture and lose some nu
trients. Cool dark storage shelves
keep food in better shape than
shelves located in a brightly light
ed warm places. If you have jams
and jellies left over, give them
away or eat jelly like crazy before
you do new supplies.
From time to time, extension
agents are asked about using home
canned foods that are many years
old. We recommend using them
up within a year or two at the
most. If you have food on your
shelf that is five or more years old,
start the new century by clearing
off the old stock!
Check Your Equipment
For the freezer:
• Defrost before adding
tf'
food. Frost steals space, in the
freezer but more important, it in
sulates the food from the cold in
the walls and freezer coils, making
the freezer less efficient If you
have a frost free freezer tidy up
and get rid of old food.
• Check the condition of the
packages. If you have food pack
ages that have holes or tears in the
wrapping you will have freezer
bum. Freezer bum dries out the
food making it taste like stewed
cardboard. Maybe you didn’t use
freezer weight foil or plastic bags
so that when the frozen food slid
around in the freezer, it was easily
tom. Invest in the proper weight
freezer wrapping to guard your
larger investment in food and
electricity. Do not reuse plastic
bags in the freezer because they
may have pin holes. Use them for
general storage in the refrigerator
or elsewhere. If the packages are
filled with lots of ice crystals, that
is usually an indication that the
bag or box was too big for the
amount of food in the bag and you
didn’t squeeze out as much air as
possible. Try to do a better job of
filling the package and excluding
air this year.
• Check your freezer tempera
ture with a thermometer. It should
be at least O’F or colder to freezer
foods quickly and form tiny ice
crystals.
For Canning:
new
• Check the condition of your
pressure canner. Is the gasket still
flexible or is it hard and stiff and
cracked. Hunt down a replace
ment now before you need it. If
you have a dial guage canner,
have the gauge tested for accuracy
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at your local extension office. Re
placement gauges cam be purchas
ed where canning supplies are
sold. Pressure canners with a
weighted gauge do not need to be
tested
If you see a used canner for sale
at a yard or garage sale or at auc
tions, realize that you can replace
gaskets, gauges and weights. Do
check on the condition of the met
al. If the aluminum is badly pitted
inside and at the sealing surface,
pass it by.
• Check your supply of lids.
Most recent lids have a date print
ed on the top. Try to use lids up
within a year or twp. The sealing
compound on old lids may lose
elasticity, causing seal failure. Us
ing old lids is “penny-wise and
pound-foolish.” Not all brands of
lids have dates, by the way, so
mark them when you buy them. I
do not think undated lids are a bar
gain at an auction because you
have no idea how old they are.
Do not over plan to reuse lids.
A fine point for those of you who
are planning to enter your efforts
in a fair: Judges tend to not award
[Mizes to canned goods that have
lids dated a couple of years ear
lier! This is 1999. As a judge I will
accept 1998 lids but will not pick
earlier lids.
• Get ready for Y2K by elim
inating old unsafe methods of can
ning such as oven canning, open
kettle canning and waterbath can
ning of vegetables and meat.
Contact your local Extension
office for information or classes in
how to do it safely. Just because
you have never become ill from
your improperly canned foods
does not make them safe!
LIFETIME GUARANTEE