Column: Safe summer food preservation - Suzhou Basalt Products Inc.

Resource Contact

Oregon State University Extension Service – Columbia County

505 N. Columbia River Highway

St. Helens, OR 97051

503-397-3462

Summer is here and with it comes garden and farm fresh produce! OSU has resources to help you preserve your foods safely.

Monthly food preservation classes are held at the NEW Columbia Pacific Food Bank building on the third Wednesday of every month. Check out all the offerings and register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/columbia-pacific-food-bank-653559

As canning season gets underway, the Food Safety and Preservation hotline from Oregon State University Extension Service is taking calls. The toll-free hotline, 800-354-7319, runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, until Oct. 13. When the hotline is closed, callers can leave a message. The hotline is staffed by certified Master Food Preserver volunteers. The volunteers fielded 1,010 calls in 2022.

Most commonly, hotline callers ask about preserving salsa, tomatoes and tuna. OSU Extension offers publications on each:

Salsa Recipes for Canning, Canning Seafood, Canning Tomatoes and Tomato Products and Safely Canning Foods: Pressure Canners, Pressure Cookers and Electric Pressure Cookers.

All of our OSU Extension Food Preservation recipes and publications can be found online by visiting: Beav.es/4eC.

We test pressure gauges in our Columbia County Extension Office for free. Call Jenny in our office at 503-397-3462 for an appointment or drop your canner lid off to be tested and get a call back when it is ready.

Low soil moisture

There is virtually no moisture in our subsoil now unless you have watered persistently. It is only the end of July and we have gotten about half an inch of rain in the last 60 days. It has also been quite warm. That increases the moisture needs of vegetable plants up to landscape trees. Native tree species are generally adapted to dry summers but many of our landscape trees didn’t evolve in a dry summer landscape and may have problems this year.

Even some of the native trees may be in trouble. Often the damage doesn’t show up until next year. This is very common on Douglas fir.

Oak tree leaves often die and drop early in a persistent drought and I expect to see it start happening soon in the St. Helens area. This is an oak tree defensive strategy and the trees rebound well the next spring. This is most obvious with oaks on basalt sites where moisture is scarce.

You should deep water your most important trees and your most recently planted ones. Apples trees will need water to produce good quality fruit as will pears.

Harvesting potatoes

Early potatoes should be ready any day now. When the vines have died, the potatoes are ready for harvest. Dig carefully to avoid bruising or cutting the skins. Potatoes can be brushed off or washed to remove dirt. They should be dried completely before they are put into storage.

Potatoes should not be exposed to light. If they develop extensive “greening”, they should be discarded.

It is difficult to store potatoes for an extended period of time. Our winter temperatures are not cold enough for good storage. I have seen people use small garbage cans with potatoes placed in layers and covered by sand or sawdust. Some store them in a box with a tight fitting lid. The most important advice is to eat the potatoes fairly quickly. They will sprout as the winter progresses. Sprouts from one potato encourage sprouts in neighboring spuds.

Check the potatoes at regular intervals to remove sprouts and rotten tubers.

Plan to transplant this fall

Fall is an ideal time to transplant evergreen shrubs and perennial plants. The trick is to get the beds ready now.

Remove the existing sod and work the ground. It may help to water the area at least eight hours before you start to till so that the soil isn’t so hard.

Amend the soil with organic matter and lime (if the shrubs or plants like lime). The beds can be covered with clear or black plastic to try and reduce the number of weed seeds.

Then, when the weather starts to turn cool and moist and when the leaves fall off the woody plants, transplant them. You can also divide and transplant herbaceous perennial plants like rhubarb or day lilies.

Important notes

Columbia County Beekeepers Monthly meeting 7 p.m. Aug. 3. at the St. Helens Extension Office or by Zoom. Briane Fakler will talk on what to do in the hive during the low nectar cycle and how to prepare the bees for winter survivability. Please email for the zoom link to [email protected] are welcome.

Have questions?

If you have questions on any of these topics or other home garden and/or farm questions, please contact Chip Bubl, Oregon State University Extension office in St. Helens at 503-397-3462 or at [email protected]. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Free newsletter

The Oregon State University Extension office in Columbia County publishes a monthly newsletter on gardening and farming topics (called County Living) written/edited by yours truly. All you need to do is ask for it and it will be mailed or emailed to you. Call 503-397-3462 to be put on the list. Alternatively, you can find it on the web at http://extension.oregonstate.edu/columbia/ and click on newsletters.

Resource Contact

Oregon State University Extension Service – Columbia County

505 N. Columbia River Highway

St. Helens, OR 97051

503-397-3462

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