Learning conservation methods for bell pepper crops at Levi’s Nek, Lesotho

The young deaf and hard-of-hearing residents of Levi’s Nek farm were visited by a regional trainer sent by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Her aim is to teach the farmers methods for conserving their market garden produce.

At the end of the southern African summer, the vegetable garden is overflowing with peppers, which need to be preserved quickly before they spoil, as the farm’s consumption is insufficient to cope.
Some were already stored in the freezer, but its capacity is limited.

So the trainer taught them how to preserve them in vinegar. The first step is to macerate them for 6 hours in salted water.
Then they are squeezed out and packed compactly in scalded jars. A vinegar-based preparation flavored with spices is brought to the boil and then poured to the brim into the jars.

This method can be applied to other vegetable crops, but we also advised them to use another, more economical method: preserving vegetables only in salt, which is cheaper than vinegar.