Our economic situation is creating some interesting conversations. I listened as one woman brought up the fact that her family was going to try to have a garden this year...and another retorted that it was to much WORK, she'll get her food from the store, thank-you...and another asked, "how would you store all that" and the answer was, well, I guess I'll can it...that evoked a reponse that I hear often..."I would NEVER do that...its to dangerous...salmonella poisoning, ya know...to much work woman agreed with her...Of course I was sitting on the edge of my chair, trying to keep quite...for I am also trying to keep a LOW profile these days...and I was able to keep quiet...barely....But there is a large MYTH perpetuated by who knows who, about home canning...That home canning is dangerous......if done properly, home canning is very safe...and much more nutritious and definately more flavorful. There is so much information out there on canning, that even beginners can safely can food. My first argument is where are the people who are getting food poisoning, getting their food from....is it home canning...NO it has come from COMMERCIALLY Processed Foods....have you REALLY heard of someone being sickened or whom has died from home canned products?
? I think once, I heard of someone out in California that died from eating wild mushrooms that they mistook for good ones....but I never heard of anyone being sickened by home canned products....I'm sure someone has....I just haven't heard of any.... My great grandmothers, grandmothers and mother have all canned successfully for years...no one has ever been sickened...I lived very rurally, in a farm community, as did all my friends growing up...We ALL ate home canned foods...My second argument to this MYTH is this...YOU are in control of how your food is processed....how quickly the food was handled, how sanitary your work area was, how long the food was processed, and in what conditions your food was stored in. And if you grown your own foods, as most in my area do, you are also in control of HOW your food is grown...Before I went into the nursing field, I worked in the food service field...I have waitressed, prep cooked, cooked, worked in the deli and the bakery...here are a few of the things I have seen...and believe me, if I saw these things in the little world I live in, I can't imagine what goes elsewhere.
1. Food dropped on the floor and picked up and served.
2. A cook took a bite out of a piece of chicken and then served it.
3. Food sent back by the customer and then reserved to another customer.
4. Spoiled chicken rinsed off and coated with a breading and fryed.
5. Tomatoes with blemishes removed from a dumpster and then put in vegetable soup and served to the customers.
6. The expiration date taken off meat and then redated to sell.
7. Cooks and servers not washing their hands after using the bathroom (probably the worst case of the scenarios here)
I'm sure I could think of more...but you get the picture here...and I KID you not, these things really happened...We still occassionally go out to eat...and I still shop in the stores where I worked and saw things...because I know the human body is quite resilliant...BUT, I try to take as much control over the safety of my food as I can...even when I lived in town for a year, I still went and bought vegetables from the local farmers market and got my meat from the local butcher.....yes, it might cost a little more to raise my own meat....yes, its a LOT more work to grow my own vegetables and such...but
Home preserving your food is in my small opinion much safer than trusting J Q public.
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