TIMMINS -- 'A Taste of Science' has arrived at the Timmins Museum: National Exhibition Centre. It's on loan from Ottawa's Canadian Agriculture and Food Museum.

Museum Curator Karen Bachmann said the exhibition gives people a chance to discover how long it takes food to rot and stink.

"I certainly learned I have a weak stomach because there's a section called: 'Eww It's Rotten' and it's almost like a scratch and sniff thing," Bachmann said. "So you go through ... and you get a sense of what happens to food over a long period of time."

Bachmann said the timing is right for the exhibition as many people have been staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and have been cooking more.

"You'll learn a lot about how we used to preserve food, how we still continue with some of these processes and why it's so important," she said.

Over at Radical Gardens, a restaurant in Timmins, Brianna Humphrey said she likes using local fermented and dehydrated garlic in numerous food creations. She described how preserving her own food helps her business.

Fermentation and pickling

"Fermentation and pickling brings a whole other layer of flavouring to food and it really can take something that you're accustomed to tasting and change it and give you a whole other experience," Humphrey said.

But she suggested people learn about the science behind food preserving to avoid creating a big mess, such as what happened to her once with 150 pounds of pickles.

"Pickle jars had exploded in the basement and it was the grossest, most irritating mess ever," she laughed.

If you're thinking about making some pickles from your garden's cucumbers, Humphrey said to start with a small batch and perhaps head over to the museum to find out what ingredients are crucial to ensure a successful canning process.