St. Paul resident shares traditional skills teaching people how to preserve food

ST. PAUL – What if you could buy in bulk, preserve your food for months, and be less worried about rising prices? Through demonstrations, Tanya Meyer is eager to teach people preservation skills that were once common practice.

Earlier this month, Meyer put on demonstrations at Peavey Mart in St. Paul about pressure canning and yogourt making. She says she hopes to offer monthly demonstrations for the community.

In the past, Meyer and her husband dabbled in smaller food projects – making jams, pickles, and salsa.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted their approach to food, leading to a deep dive into food preservation. They learned about pressure canning, for example, to ensure their family's food supply was safe, local, and free of additives.

"The biggest benefit for us is knowing what goes into our food," she says. "For us, it's the health factor of it."

She adds, "We just didn't want the system to dictate what we were able to feed our family anymore."

Another benefit of preserving their own food is being able to save money, especially when the Meyers were faced with empty grocery store shelves and soaring prices during to the pandemic.

With pressure canning, "We're able to shop in bulk, preserve it, and have it ready for when it's needed," she says.

The couple uses their pressure canner to can over 1,500 jars a year - from jams, jellies, meat, broth, soup, stews, and more. "We also do water bath canning. We do both."

All the preserved food is used for their own personal use.

"It's become part of our normal routine."

Before the couple moved to St. Paul in January to be closer to family, they taught urban homesteading skills at a farm back in Ontario, such as small animal butchering and how to raise livestock.

"Along with pressure canning from scratch – just kind of anything that we could share to get people cooking at home and saving money," she says, before finding an opportunity to do something similar in St. Paul.

Teaching others The couple learned many of their skills by watching videos online. But even with modern conveniences like social media, there is something important about sharing skills in-person.

"I'm a visual learner. A hands-on learner. So, learning things on the internet, you never know whether you're learning something that's safe or not safe," especially with pressure canning for example, she says.

Many people worry about using a pressure canner, thinking it will blow up and go through the roof.

"That's why we do it in person, so people could come and see - because it's so much less intimidating."

Seeing and understanding the whole process is important. Learning the steps in the process - like understanding the proper temperature and ensuring a 10-minute vent on the pressure canner before putting the weight on – are crucial.

"Those little few things, we find a lot of people don't necessarily follow, because they haven't had an in-depth explanation of how to do it safely. Once you understand how to run your pressure canner . . . it is so simple and easy," she says.

Meyer believes it is important to teach other skills so they can also control what goes into their body - and save money.

"There are so many people right now who can barely afford a roof over their head. They can't afford groceries . . . we just couldn't imagine not sharing [the knowledge]."