Preserving the Harvest
| Danielle Carson |
September 25 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Preserving food grown at home, in season, has long been a practice of food security and community. As gardeners, farmers and homesteaders, the abundance we harvest in the summer can last us through the winter months if we have the skills, materials and space for preserving food. Join Washington State University Extension Program Coordinator Danielle Carson for the Green Thumb Education Series presentation “Preserving the Harvest,” Thursday, September 25th from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Avenue in Port Angeles and find out how to make your harvest last all year long.
All gardeners and locavores know the overwhelming feeling in September when our gardens, fruit trees and neighborhoods are lush with fruits and vegetables. This class is an overview of the many methods and resources that we can use, from high-tech to low-tech (even no-tech!) to preserve the fruits of our labor! Participants will leave the class equipped with knowledge about food safety and a set of guidelines for extending nearly any fresh food item’s life span from fall through to the next harvest season. In a jam-packed two hours, Danielle will give an overview of the history of food preservation, food safety considerations for the gardener-turned-food preserver and preservation methods, including fermentation, canning, dehydration, pickling and more.
Danielle is the Community Health Program Coordinator and Food Preservation Advisor for WSU Extension Clallam County, as well as a hobby food preservationist. As a local sauerkraut maker, she specializes in wild fermentation, but advises the community on canning, dehydration, pickling, and other types of food preservation. She has been growing and preserving food for a decade, five seasons of which she has lived and farmed on the Olympic Peninsula. Danielle found her way into food preservation like many of us did: through a love for gardening and an appreciation for the seasonal abundances that Olympic Peninsula gardens, farms and nature have to offer. She is currently experimenting with beer, wine and mead-making in addition to making large batches of pickles and sauerkraut to share with our community.
The Green Thumb Education Series, sponsored by the Washington State University Clallam County Master Gardeners, is held in person on the second Thursday of each month from January through May, and September through November (unless otherwise noted). Scheduled presentations are subject to change. Visit the WSU Extension Clallam County website calendar at https://extension.wsu.edu/clallam/master-gardener-calendar/ for the latest information on upcoming presentations. For questions, call 360-565-2678.
