John Lawrence’s message from July 29, 2019

Many Iowans might not remember a time when preserving summer’s bounty of fruits and vegetables meant using an open kettle on top of the stove – and that’s a good thing. Thanks to USDA and modern research, today we know that the old, open kettle method is unsafe, because undesirable microorganisms can still grow after food is heated that way. Our nutrition and wellness specialists in Human Sciences teach Iowans the safe way to Preserve the Taste of Summer, our comprehensive food preservation program. Did you know?

• The program began in 2011 as eight online lessons followed by four optional, hands-on workshops. Over the years, feedback indicated that clients viewed the online lessons as barriers to participation. So, our food preservation workgroup dropped the online component and revised the four workshops to include a comprehensive discussion of safe food preservation practices followed by a hands-on practicum.
• The workshops provide the most current USDA-approved food preservation recommendations for making salsa, jam, pickles and pickled products, as well as instruction in dehydrating, freezing and pressure canning.
• This spring the workgroup completed the first workshop for youth, jam making. Two more youth workshops, salsa making and pressure canning, are being developed.
• Sarah Francis, nutrition and wellness extension state specialist, says that in a 2018 survey, 88% of workshop participants reported being very satisfied with the relevance of the information they received, and 94% were very satisfied with the overall quality of the workshops. All stated the information was understandable.

Preserve the Taste of Summer’s impact has spread beyond Iowa. Washington State University Extension and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Extension have been using it as their food preservation program since 2013. Sarah also shared the impact in a Journal of Extension article. For more information, contact Sarah at slfranci@iastate.edu.

More notes

• Our Rising Stars are completing their internships with their final presentations Thursday, Aug. 1 from 10-11:30 a.m. We are working to make a livestream available. Check the Rising Stars Facebook page on Aug. 1 for a link to the livestream to learn about their projects focused on community access to nutritious food, as well as community economic development.
• Our Goodbye and Welcome list is on temporary hiatus as our Improved Service Delivery human resources staff come on board and HR processes move to Workday. We are working on a new way to compile our monthly list of people who have left or joined ISU Extension and Outreach. We will resume the monthly list soon, and we thank you for your patience.

— John D. Lawrence
Iowa State University Vice President for Extension and Outreach