April 19, 2021
Perhaps more than ever in recent history, at-home food preservation has been on the forefront of people’s minds.
By Adriana Janovich, Washington State Magazine
Home canning had already been making a comeback. Then the pandemic hit.
Enjoying a jar of summer sun-ripened peaches in the middle of a freezing February is reason enough to can for Anna Kestell, who has been canning all of her adult life.
“I have to have my peaches,” she said. “They are my most favorite thing. That’s my go-to dessert: my own canned peaches with cream. That’s my comfort food.”
Also comforting: giving her home-canned garden-grown vegetables, jams, and jellies to friends as gifts. Kestell always includes the recipe and processing instructions. In her role as the food preservation and safety outreach educator at Washington State University Extension for Spokane County, she’s been teaching people to can and answering their home-canning and other food preservation questions for seven years.