2021 Spring Home and Garden

Page 22 2021 Spring Home & Garden LINCOLN DAILY NEWS April 22, 2021 The greater satisfaction of preserving your garden products is going to come from knowing what you are putting on the family dinner plate, where it came from, and what it contains, or better yet, does not contain, in addition to the quality of the vegetable. You should also consider the time it takes for food preservation. Two of the best and easiest vegetables to can are tomatoes and green beans. Tomatoes take quite a bit of work on the prep end, but very little time in the pressure canner. Green beans also take an investment of time on the prep side and take longer during the canning process. If you are interested in trying your hand at canning these two veggies, here are a couple of videos that will give you a good look at what it will take to do so. CANNING TOMATOES 101 Canning Green Beans - simple and to-the- point Many people enjoy canning their own salsa from veggies they grow in the garden. This too is a time consuming effort, but it can again be well worth it if you have storage space and consume a lot of salsa in a year. Here is a great video to walk you through that process. But, bear in mind the tomato you use is important. This recipe uses Roma or plum tomatoes because they are meatier with less juice. Making and Canning Fresh Chunky Salsa - Complete Walkthrough Freezing veggies is controversial for some, as the old school belief is that nothing frozen will ever taste as good as a canned product. The true analogy is, nothing preserved will ever taste as good as fresh from the garden. But in the end, what you do preserve will taste quite good on a cold winter day. CONTINUED u