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A young girl with a snail-shaped watering can.

Ages & Stages in the Garden: Ages 6-8

A garden can be used to teach many concepts to a board range of ages. When working with early elementary youth you will want to consider characteristics of their development when planning lessons and activities.

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.

a sprawling green plant with flowering yellow heads

Sweet Clover Poisoning

Hay that contains sweet clover can be an excellent feed as long as the dicoumarol level is known and feeding management is used to prevent poisoning.

filed of sunflowers in bloom

Why Add an Agritourism Enterprise to Your Farm or Ranch?

Agritourism is the practice of touring agricultural areas to see farms and often to participate in farm activities.