Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • September 19, 2012 Karen Lyman (continued from page 14) She finds canning cost effective as well, estimating that her own salsa creates a savings of $5.40 per quart and a total savings of $388.80 for 72 quarts. “At Midland Park A&P, a 16 oz jar of Ortega salsa is $3.29, and you would need to buy two of those jars to equal a one-quart canning jar – a total expense of $6.58,” she points out. “In addition, I know that my salsa has all fresh produce and no preservatives. You can really taste the difference. Who says a Dutch girl can’t make a good salsa?” Karen notes that although the “art” of canning is most often associated with one’s grandparents, it is becoming increasingly popular in the younger generation in their 20s and 30s who want to know what is in the food they eat. She says her daughter has now taken up the craft so as to prepare nutritious food for her 3 year-old daughter, Annabelle. Loving what she does, Karen is more than happy to share tips for others to follow. “Getting a good canning guide with tested recipes is important so you can process the food for the appropriate time necessary for safety,” she says, adding that the National Center for Food Preservation offers a free USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning available for downloading on their web site. She also suggests getting the Mason jars at garage sales or even on Craig’s List. “My best find was a curb alert on Craig’s List when a family cleaned out their grandmother’s basement and put 80 mason jars out on the curb for free. I now have over 650 jars that I am recycling, and most of them were either free or very inexpensive garage sale finds. Also, many stores will discount sealing lids at the end of the season in late fall, so I stock up on lids at 50% to 75% off for the following year,” she says. In all Karen figures she has canned nearly 1,000 quarts Above: Lyman in her pantry. Right: Tomatoes on the stove. of produce since she started, with the full knowledge that even though the labels on the mass-produced jars on supermarket shelves may boast of all natural ingredients or no preservatives, they will never be able to duplicate the most important ingredient in her canning jars: a mother’s love. Sears Hardware Midland Park, Eugene Myers of LaStrada Gourmet Deli, Joe Mulligan of Genua & Mulligan Printing Corp. of Clifton, Mike Fremgen of Fremgen Brothers Tree Service, a few anonymous donors, and another anonymous donor who covered all the costs of lettering our new unit. “As always we would like to thank each and every one of our residents and business owners for their continuing support,” Junta said. The new mobile unit is equipped with two Honda portable generators with emergency lighting, six disaster packs, water coolers, misting fans, tables and folding chairs, an emergency EZ-Up tent, mass causality incident management equipment, Tyvek suits, Haz-Mat suits, traffic cones, medical supplies and an automatic electronic defribulator unit, multi point oxygen port system, three working structure fire stand-by kits, member safety equipment, as well as other small items to be used in emergency medical management. Mobile unit (continued from page 12) said. Bolger, a Ridgewood philanthropist, has purchased the barn at the Marlow Park property on Godwin Avenue and is reconstructing it for the ambulance corps headquarters, with a community room on the second floor. Junta said additional fundraising was needed for extra equipment the State of NJ State First Aid Council requires the corps to carry. “Our business community was great and we would like to also thank the following people for their donations: “Roger and Lucy of the Parkwood Deli, David Zuidema of David Zuidema Septic Tank Service, Ray Santhouse of Atlantic Stewardship Bank, our friends at the Midland Park Lions Club, Dave and Jean Pennington of All American Appliance Service of Midland Park, Ken Weite of