MEXICO — Kathy Crump has been canning and pickling for years. The Andover resident wants to keep up-to-date on the safest procedures for preserving fresh foods.

Connie Money of Mexico is a college student who has never canned and wants to learn the art.

Both women, two others, and one man attended a pickle- and jam-making workshop Tuesday morning at the Region 9 School of Technology offered by Chris Cosce, a program aid with the Penobscot County Extension Service.

“This is my first time,” Money said. “I love pickles and canned foods and wanted to learn to do it myself.”

This is also the first time Region 9 Adult Education has offered classes in the pickling, jelly-making and canned-foods arts, Director Nancy Allen said.

“We’re excited about it,” said Allen, a canner and pickler herself. In August, a workshop on canning and freezing tomatoes will be offered.

Although Lori Gallant of Peru has tried making jelly and jam and canning, she said she was unsure how safe her finished products were. She and her husband, Chris, who also attended Tuesday’s workshop, give some of their canned efforts as gifts.

Chris said the couple grows a large garden each year and much of it goes to waste.

He, too, wants to preserve it.

Safety was also in the mind of Sarah Broughton of Rumford.

“I’ve been experimenting for the last few years. I want to learn to do it safer. I grow a garden and want to preserve it,” she said.

Crump, who has been canning for many years, always wants to keep up with the latest procedures. On Tuesday, she learned that many of today’s tomato varieties don’t have as much acid as she had always believed, so a little vinegar, lemon juice, or citric acid should be added to each jar before processing in a hot-water bath.

Each member of the class tried their hand at making dilly green beans.

Cosce took them step-by-step through the procedure, from the importance of sterilizing the jars and lids to processing them in the hot-water bath (simmering water must cover the jars by at least an inch).

Money was careful to trim each whole bean to the same length. The beans, garlic, dill weed, boiling vinegar and water and pickling salt were then arranged in the pint jars, leaving a half-inch headroom. The dilly beans were then processed for 5 minutes.

Lori Gallant said learning to can was also important to her because she grew up with the art in her family’s kitchen.

The next canning workshop in Mexico is set for 9 a.m. on Aug. 2 at Region 9.

This one will be on canning tomatoes and freezing fruits and vegetables.

Another workshops will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., July 27 and July 28, on hot-water-bath canning and freezing fruits and vegetables, at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Franklin County office in Farmington.

For detailed information on canning and other types of preserving contact http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/, which is the National Center for Home Food Preservation. A wealth of data on food preservation and links to specific procedures may be found at this site.

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