Under Pressure

With spring not too far away our minds start to think and plan towards jungle camp. One area that our students need to plan for is their meals up in the bush. Since there is no refrigeration all meat needs to be processed in a pressure canner. This was some thing totally new to me as a student 23 years ago. I am a city girl and so there was never any need for my mother to can any thing. It can seem a bit scary if you have never worked with a pressure canner. I was very glad for learning this skill when I went through the missionary training. My grandmother bought me a pressure canner that I took to the mission field with me. I used it many times. One time I canned a whole cow. It was so handy in the tribe especially when we had unexpected guests. It also is very common to have a very limited amount of freezer space and at times missionaries have even lived without a fridge or freezer. Our students will all be going into different situations and may not have a need to pressure can meats and vegetables. But in case they do, they will be glad that they learned how to pressure can. Yesterday I taught a class on pressure canning meat and all the different steps there are in the process. Within the next month or so I will start canning the meats that our family will be eating during jungle camp. Our children actually really enjoy canned meat so it is not a hardship but a treat to eat it. Now doesn't that get you excited and wanting to pressure can some meat?