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Five jars of canned stewed tomatoes sitting on a gray kitchen towel with a gray background.

Canning Tomatoes Safely

Home canning tomatoes is a great way to preserve them for later use. It is critical to use proper methods of heat processing to ensure a safe finished product.

Several cans of homemade salsa sitting on a table.

Canning Tomato-Vegetable Mixtures

Tomatoes are unique when it comes to home canning recipes. Some tomato and vegetable recipes recommend using a boiling water bath canner, some recipes recommend a pressure canner, and some recipes offer both options.

dial on a pressure canner

Altitude Adjustments for Home Canning

There are many guidelines to follow when canning, an important one often overlooked is checking one’s need to adjust for altitude.

collection of pressure canned food

Water Bathing vs. Pressure Canning

Water bathing and pressure canning are two common ways to preserve foods by canning. These techniques use heat processing to preserve foods, and which technique you use depends on the acidity of the food.

A dial pressure canner gauge

Testing Dial Pressure Canner Gauges

For accuracy before use, it is recommended that dial gauges get tested each year. Gauges that read high cause under-processing and may result in unsafe food.

an image of fresh tomatoes

Farmers Market Food Safety: Health & Hygiene

Health, hygiene and hand washing apply to all stages of production, processing and marketing. Ill food handlers can easily contaminate fresh produce with disease-causing microorganisms. Many of these organisms have the capability to survive on fresh fruits and vegetables for an extended time, from several days to weeks. Once the organism is established on fresh produce, it is very hard to remove.

Sand Bagged home in surrounded by flood water. FEMA News Photo

Managing Flooding Around Home Structures

As South Dakota and our surrounding neighbors begin to deal with the consequences of spring snowmelt and the dramatic flash flooding that came about from the region’s most recent winter storm, we can only hope that conditions begin to improve quickly.

aerial view of a flooded farm in late winter. FEMA News Photo

Inundaciones: sugerencias útiles

La primavera en el Medio Oeste siempre trae el riesgo de inundaciones, sea por la nieve que se derrite o por lluvia en exceso.