Learn how to freeze, can the food you grow or get from local farmers

Add comment June 17th, 2009

Gardens are starting to produce these lovely , fresh vegetables and many people are visiting the local farmers markets. There is an increased interest in preserving some of those foods to enjoy this winter. Supporting local agriculture helps all of us in the Northern Illinois area. It’s good to know how the food you eat is being produced, and buying locally directly from a farmer or at the farmers market helps our local farmers.

Home canning and freezing is not a complicated process, however, strict guidelines need to be followed in order to keep the food safe. Be sure to follow the USDA research based recommendations and do not rely on old family recipes or any recipe book prior to 2006.

The two most common forms of food preservation are canning and freezing.

Freezing: Freezing is an easier and quicker way of preserving food. It costs between 38 and 50 cents a year to maintain a freezer for one pound of food, not including the cost of the produce. A couple of very important things to remember are: Use the proper packaging to protect flavor, color, moisture content and nutritional value from the dry conditions of the home freezer.  Also,  for vegetables, be sure to blanch for the recommended time.  Blanching stops the action of the enzymes that cause loss of flavor, color and texture.

Canning:  This method of preservation may be a less expensive way of storing produce, but more time and energy are spent to prepare and process the foods. Canning some foods can be difficult for beginners and it requires preserving foods by using methods that keep the food safe when stored at room temperatures. A pressure canner is needed to ensure safe low-acid canned foods. There are no safe boiling water canning options for vegetables, meats and seafood, soups and some other mixtures of foods.

Use up-to-date canning recommendations: Always use tested recipes and directions form a reliable source. Ignoring the recommended procedures can result in home canned products that may make you or your family members ill. Following are some recommended resources.

Two recommended resource recipe books: 
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, available from National Home Food Preservation
“The Ball Blue Book, available at most local stores that provide home canning supplies

Questions about Specific Canners:
National Presto Industries: 800-877-0441 (Parts and Service)
Mirro: 800-527-7727

Questions about specific canning products: 
Mrs. Wages: 800-647-8170
Sure-Jell: 877-535-5666
Splenda: 800-777.5363

Local University of Illinois Extension Offices also offer classes and help with Home Food Preservation.

With knowledge and reliable resources your home canning experience will be fun and successful.

This is not your typical health fair

Add comment June 17th, 2009

That’s what Karen King says about the Holistic Health Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at her store, Choices Natural Market, 6551 E Riverside Blvd., Rockford.

According to her press release: It will feature more than 30 alternative health practitioners from around the area, including acupuncturists, chiropractors and massage therapists. There will be music, food and yoga. You can watch bees make honey, talk to farmers, sample raw organic foods, take part in a clay therapy session or do Tai Chi.

For more information, call 815-282-1861 or visit choicesnaturalmarket.com.

UPDATED: I’m an Aveda fan but didn’t know…

Add comment June 17th, 2009

… that the company recycles most caps — not just Aveda’s — in the Recycle Caps program.

Because apparently most caps don’t get recycled and end up in landfills or as litter that can harm birds on beaches, for example.

Hmm. I have to do more research. Like which salons accept them. And do our recycling companies cut the caps off or actually recycle them?

Anyone?

UPDATE: Weis-Morris Day Spa in Rockford participates in the program! Still trying to find out more…

How to fix suburban sprawl

Add comment June 17th, 2009

Here’s one idea I stumbled across in Time this weekend: live and work in the same place.

I was probably more interested than usual because it involves reinventing Tysons Corners, Va. — a place I used to visit when our corporate parent was Gannett Co. Inc.

Some 120,000 people work in Tysons, but only 17,000 live here. “Every morning, 110,000 cars arrive, and they all leave at 5,” says Clark Tyler, a former federal transportation official and the chairman of a task force whose ambitious goal is to help transform Tysons into a full-fledged city — where people live and work and play 24 hours a day.

The blueprint, which has been four years in the making and calls for a dense, walkable green city, is a model of public-private partnership and the largest such undertaking in the country.

The implications of this redevelopment project stretch far beyond Fairfax County, as suburbs and exurbs across the country look for ways to repair the damage from five decades of outward, rather than upward, expansion. There are scores of so-called edge cities that have popped up near urban centers, suburbs on steroids that often grew around a giant mall — like King of Prussia, Pa. (outside Philadelphia) and Schaumburg, Ill. (Chicago).

“If Tysons can be retrofitted, then there’s great hope for a lot of others,” says June Williamson, an associate professor of architecture at the City College of New York and a co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia.

However, this can hit home, too. Rockford has grown so much in size.