SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - A 96-year-old jar of preserved pumpkins offers researchers at Dakota State University a one-of-a-kind opportunity to study bacteria and air in the pre-industrial great plains.
Chemistry Professor Michael Gaylor says the research will offer insight into the prevailing environmental conditions of a simpler time.
Gaylor says researchers will study the preserves' air, gases, micro organisms, fungi, all the things that were entombed in the jar when it was sealed.
Gaylor says the DSU scientists are raising $6,000 for the project. He says most of the money will be spent on DNA testing which will have to go a bigger lab for analysis. He says donations of any size can be made by going to experiment.com.
He says staff will first practice on some preserves sealed in the 1950's. He says they only have one shot with the 1920's jar in an inert box that will keep contamination out.
The preserves won second place at a Flandreau fair and was eventually forgotten until discovered in the Moody County Historical Society Museum.