Tim Long, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

Red Delicious apples at the market (Photo caption: Tim Long, used with permission). 

If you’re looking for a native apple tree, you’ll to be disappointed. Apples, other than three varieties of crabapples, aren’t native to the Americas. They originated in Kazakhstan in central Asia and eastern Europe about 6,500 years ago.

Apples came to America with the first colonists, who carried young trees and seeds from home. Unlike today’s apples, they were likely smaller and not so pleasant tasting. Even so, apples became a staple in the American diet with many being pressed to make cider. Hard cider was regularly consumed at meals—a safer alternative at a time when water supplies often carried disease due to poor sanitary practices.

Apples moved westward along with settlers, including the man many know as Johnny Appleseed. He was born Jonathan Chapman in 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts, and apprenticed as an apple orchardist. Chapman collected seeds from cider presses, planting (and selling!) orchards as he traveled west.

Over 2,500 Varieties of Apples are Grown in the United States

Although the crabapple is the only variety native to North America, thousands of varieties of apples are grown in the United States. Red Delicious, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Braeburn, McIntosh, Rome, Granny Smith, and Gala are a few of the most popular varieties grown in the U.S.

Fun facts and useful information:

• The old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," comes from an old English adage, "To eat an apple before going to bed, will make the doctor beg his bread."

• A bushel of apples weighs about 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts of apple sauce.
• Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.
• It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.

• Don't peel your apple (but do wash it). Two-thirds of the fiber and lots of antioxidants are found in the peel.
• Red Delicious is the most widely grown apple variety in the United States.

• The five most popular apples in the United States are Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, and Granny Smith.  

Different apple varieties are best suited for particular applications:

Table provided by University of Illinois-Illinois Extension Food Preservation:
https://extension.illinois.edu/food-preservation/apples

Special Note on Acidity of Apples from: Ball Blue Book FAQs

“Why was lemon juice added to apple recipes in the Ball® Blue Book 38th edition?”

Over the past several years, recipe validation efforts with apples have noticed the pH increasing of certain species. The Ball^® Home Canning Test Kitchen ran a screening study of a variety of species of apples under several conditions and found that some species have pH's higher than historical assumptions. We are unaware of any documented safety issues arising from current apple recipes, and the National Center for Home Food Preservation has not updated their guidance on apples requiring any acidification. Out of an abundance of caution and in the spirit of continuous improvement, we have added bottled lemon juice to all apple-based recipes where the apple was expected to be the lowest pH ingredient. The quantity of lemon juice was based on experimentation of different types of apple recipes using the highest pH apple species that was identified, and using pH modeling to understand the margin at different pH and temperature thresholds keeping existing processing time recommendations the same. These apple acidification guidelines have been incorporated into all Ball^® home canning recipe publications for print year 2024. We are not currently recommending that consumers discard any apple recipes they have canned previously as prior publications are still within USDA recommendations. We are advising consumers using Ball^® recipes to follow the acidification guidelines in publications starting in 2024. We believe this is a best practice given the current information, and we will reevaluate as additional data becomes available.”

See https://help.ballmasonjars.com/s/article/Why-was-lemon-juice-added-to-apple-recipes-in-the-Ball-Blue-Book-38th-edition

Great resources for apple/apple related preservation are: 

The Ball^® Blue Book, https://www.ballmasonjars.com/products/products-to-get-you-started/ball%C2%AE-blue-book-guide-to-preserving/ and the Ball^® website (https://www.ballmasonjars.com/recipes?fdid=recipes)

Selecting, Preparing, and Canning Fruit and Fruit Products, The National Center for Home Food Preservation  (https://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/guide/GUIDE02_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf)

So Easy to Preserve, Cooperative Extension, The University of Georgia.  https://www.fcs.uga.edu/extension/so-easy-to-preserve

UCANR Master Food Preservers: https://ucanr.edu/program/uc-master-food-preserver-program/uc-master-food-preservers-recipes

Henry Shaw, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

Your Name Here MFP Badge (Photo caption: Henry Shaw, used with permission).

Do you want to learn more about safe food-preservation techniques? Do you have a passion for sharing your knowledge with others? Are you willing to donate your time as a volunteer for a good cause? Would you like to help people in your community learn to preserve food safely in their homes, reduce food waste, increase food security, and provide engaging ways for Californians to explore healthy food? Are you a resident of California?  If so, you should consider becoming a UC Master Food Preserver yourself! 

Applications are now open for the 2026 UC Master Food Preserver training program.  Complete details of the application process, what the training entails, and the training schedule are available on the UC Master Food Preserver website. If you reside in a county that has a local county-based program, you should apply to that county’s program. Note that not all counties are conducting training in 2026 (see the website). California residents living in counties that do not have a county-based program (i.e., Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Ventura) are invited to apply to the 2026 training for the  Online Delivery Program.

Once trained, UC Master Food Preservers must volunteer a minimum of 50 hours in their first year, and 25 hours/year subsequently. To maintain their active status past the first year, volunteers are also required to complete 12 hours/year of continuing education and pass an annual recertification quiz.

Robyn Barker, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

If you have a sunny spot in your garden or on your patio, chili peppers are fun and easy to grow. The plants don’t get too large; they can even be grown in a container. They are relatively disease and pest free. With limited space and energy though, I prefer to grow varieties that I like to eat but can’t be easily found at the grocery store. This year, among others, I grew Hatch and Aji Amarillo varieties. 

Hatch peppers are synonymous with New Mexico. I’ve heard said that, just as sparkling wine must be from the Champagne region of France to be Champagne, a Hatch pepper must be from New Mexico to truly be a Hatch pepper. Whether you visit Albuquerque or Santa Fe, these peppers will be found in a myriad of dishes: chiles, cheeses, tacos, burritos, or my favorite, a Hatch chili cheeseburger. In the late summer and fall, they sell bags of fire-roasted Hatch chilis by the side of the road. I bought my seeds in the spring, and they were labelled as producing a mild green chili. 

Aji Amarillo peppers are from Peru. Aji is the Spanish word used for chili peppers in South America; amarillo means yellow. The peppers are fruity and tangy and moderately spicy, about 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville scale. Like the Hatch peppers in New Mexico, they appear in many Peruvian dishes, most deliciously in Aji de Gallina or Peruvian Chicken chili. When fully ripe, they are a neon orange color and they are about the last of my chili peppers to ripen (Fig. 1). It isn’t unusual for me to be biting my nails hoping they will ripen before the weather gets too cold. 

Aji Amarillo peppers in various stages of ripeness (Photo caption: Robyn Barker, used with permission).

Early fall is about the right time of the year to process Aji Amarillo peppers. It’s a little late for my Hatch peppers, which I didn’t catch before they turned red (Fig 2). I frequently wait for my jalapeno and serrano peppers to turn red – the flavor tends to be richer and fruitier and a bit hotter. But not all peppers improve with age. The shishitos become too dry, and the pulp of these Hatches seems to have thinned. But they are still usable!

Ripe Hatch peppers (Photo caption: Robyn Barker, used with permission). 

I decided to preserve some of my peppers so I could keep a little of the summer flavor to enjoy later in the winter. Both preparations can be used to make dips, marinades, or spice up sauces and soups. Although I made these sauces with the Hatch and Aji Amarillo peppers, the instructions will also work with many other varieties of chili peppers that you find in the grocery store produce section, your farmers’ market, or in your garden.

To prep the chili peppers, first slice off the stem and blossom ends and remove the seeds and the white pith. Use disposable gloves to protect your hands from the spicier peppers. 

To keep the sauce smooth, remove the skin of the peppers. This can be done after blanching the peppers in boiling water, but, preferring the smokier flavor, I put them under a broiler for five minutes until they started to blister and blacken and then let them steam in a plastic bag or under tented aluminum foil for ten minutes. The skin then comes off easily (Fig 3).

Roasted Aji Amarillo pepper that has been skinned (Photo caption: Robyn Barker, used with permission). 

To make a paste with the Aji Amarillo peppers, I whirled them in my food processor with about a tablespoon of water until they were pureed. I then filled slots in an ice cube tray and put the tray into the freezer (Fig. 4). Each cube slot held about two tablespoons of puree. Once frozen, I can repack the cubes into a plastic freezer bag or vacuum-sealed bag, labelling them so I will remember exactly what they are, and use them as needed. You can find several recipes that rely on the Aji Amarillo paste. I’ve yet to try them, but am intrigued by:

Aji Amarillo paste being loaded in ice cube tray (Photo caption: Robyn Barker, used with permission). 

• Aji de Gallina: https://kitchenjoyblog.com/aji-de-gallina-peruvian-yellow-pepper-chicken/
• Dipping sauce: https://www.platingsandpairings.com/aji-amarillo-recipe/
• Peruvian Style Mahi Mahi: https://greenhealthycooking.com/peruvian-style-mahi-mahi-recipe/

I decided to make a more complicated sauce or salsa with the Hatch peppers because their mild flavor wasn’t quite so distinctive. This sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or frozen for 6-month to a year. 

Hatch Pepper Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

15 minutes prep time

½ cup roasted Hatch chili peppers

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ yellow onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves and stems

½ lime, zested and juiced

2 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 Tbsp honey

½ tsp salt

1. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally for five minutes. Do not brown. Stir in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, 30 seconds.
2. Transfer the onion mixture to a food processor. Add the hatch chiles and pulse 8-10 times.
3. Add the chopped cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, cider vinegar, honey and salt. Purée until smooth
4. This sauce can be frozen in freezer-safe containers (be sure to leave room for expansion), frozen using the ice-cube tray technique described in the Aji Amarillo recipe above, or kept it in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Adapted from https://www.garlicandzest.com/hatch-green-chile-sauce/

Mary Nazara, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

County of residence: Los Angeles

Mary Nazara, used with permission. 

I started preserving in the summer of 2022 after a phone call from my sister. She had a tree full of ripe plums and didn’t want them to go to waste. I already had a canner I’d bought years earlier on clearance, still sitting unopened in my pantry because, honestly, I was too nervous to use it. I had read through the Ball canning books, watched videos, and done plenty of research—but I just couldn’t bring myself to start.

That all changed the day my sister and I made plum jam together. We spent the afternoon laughing, learning, and cheering every time we heard that satisfying “ping” of a sealing jar. It was such a fun day, and from that moment, I was hooked! After that first batch, I started canning on my own—mostly jam and tomatoes at first.

Before long, I wanted to try pressure canning. I loved the idea of having ready-to-eat meals on the shelf and not being limited to just high-acid foods. While researching safe recipes, I came across a YouTube video where someone mentioned wishing their state had a Master Food Preserver program. That got me curious, so I did some digging and found an online program I could apply for. I knew right away it was exactly what I wanted to do.

The Master Food Preserver program gave me the knowledge and confidence to safely preserve food for my family—and to help others feel comfortable doing the same. I love canning, freezing, and even a little dehydrating, but pressure canning is still my favorite! Being part of the Master Food Preserver community has been such a fun and rewarding experience.

Henry Shaw UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

County of residence: Contra Costa

Image credit: Henry Shaw, 2025.

My love of food and cooking began as a small child at my mother’s side in the kitchen. Over the decades, both my culinary interests and kitchen skills have grown considerably. My spouse (also a member of the MFP Class of 2024) and I are avid foodies who love to garden, forage, and cook. We often share our garden’s bounty and kitchen creations with friends and colleagues. Becoming a volunteer with the UC Master Food Preserver (MFP) Online Delivery Program has been a natural and fun way to deepen our knowledge of food preservation and share it with others through online classes and publications.

I grew up in a family that always had a vegetable garden. My second-generation Italian mother used simple preservation methods like freezing (stews, chicken stock, and pasta sauce were staples) and drying herbs such as parsley, thyme, and what was then considered the “exotic” basil. This was 1960s New England—where basil truly was an uncommon ingredient! Canning, however, wasn’t something we did.

My passion for gardening and cooking went on pause during my high school and college years, but I rekindled while in graduate school in Pasadena, CA. Along with a few classmates, I dug up the backyard of our rental house to plant a large vegetable garden. It was so much easier to grow things there than it was in short growing season and rocky soils of New England!

In more recent years, I’ve maintained a year-round garden that produces more than we can possibly eat. That abundance led me to learn food preservation techniques such as canning high-acid foods, dehydrating fruits and vegetables, and freezing low-acid foods. Although I had used pressure cookers to speed up the making of stews and other dishes that usually require long cooking times, I had never pressure canned before becoming an MFP.

I retired in the fall of 2019 after a 36-year career as a research scientist and R&D manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I immediately began volunteering at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and at our local library. I investigated becoming a UC Master Gardener, but I had missed the application window that year. Then, in March 2020, COVID-19 shut everything down and the world shifted to being online. Looking back, that shift turned out to be a good thing because I learned of the existence of the UC Master Food Preserver Program from a UCANR “EATLAC” online webinar series on the Science of Fermentation. I quickly investigated the possibility of becoming an MFP volunteer but was disappointed to learn that my county (Contra Costa) does not have an MFP Program. Nevertheless, I added my name and e-mail to a contact list in the event an opportunity became available to me in the future. 

I did end up becoming a UC Master Gardener in the first post-COVID class of 2022 and in late 2023, more than a year and a half after putting my name on the MFP contact list, I received an e-mail inviting me to apply for a new MFP Online Delivery Program. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity.

As a graduate of the Online Delivery Program’s first class, I’ve been able to volunteer in many ways: serving as copy editor for this Newsletter; teaching online classes on preserving pomegranate and feijoa; joining several “Ask a Master Food Preserver” online panels; and co-leading our social media efforts (including creating most of our Facebook posts). I’m also preparing to lead a new statewide Food Preservation Helpline.

In my “spare time”, I continue to volunteer at the Exploratorium, as a UC Master Gardener, and as a Board member (past-President and current Vice President) of a local orchid society. My wife and I are also enthusiastic foragers of edible mushrooms and seaweed—though I admit she’s more into the latter than I am. Retirement is good, and as many retirees say, I don’t know how I ever found the time to work!

Kirsten Hansen, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

Jar of pie filling on a marble countertop (Photo by Penny Pearson, used with permission). 

October is peak apple and pear season across much of California. This tasty Apple-Pear-Cranberry pie filling makes the most of the season’s abundance and gives you a start on holiday baking; when it’s time to make a holiday pie, just open a quart of the pie filling, add it to your favorite pie crust, and bake. 

Apple-Pear-Cranberry Pie Filling

Yield: About 3 (1-QT/1-L) jars

Source: The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving © 2016

Ingredients

• 4 cups (1 L) water
• ¾ cup (175 mL) bottled lemon juice, divided
• 5 cups (1.25 L) thinly sliced peeled apples (2 lb./1kg apples)
• 5 cups (1.25 L) thinly sliced peeled pears (2 ¼ lb./1kg pears)
• 2 cups (500 mL) cranberries, fresh or frozen, thawed
• 2 1.2 cups (625 mL) sugar
• 1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp (0.5 mL) ground nutmeg

Instructions

1. Combine water and ¼ cup (60 mL) lemon juice in a large bowl. Submerge apple and pear slices in lemon water: drain.
2. Combine fruit slices, cranberries, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and remaining ½ cup (125 mL) lemon juice in a 6-qt (6-L) stainless steel or enameled Dutch oven. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, cover and cook 10 minutes or until fruit releases its juices, stirring occasionally.
3. Ladle hot fruit mixture into a hot jar, leaving 1/2-inch (1-cm) headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band and adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in a boiling-water canner or atmospheric steam canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
4. Process jars for 30 minutes, adjusting for altitude (see table below). Turn off heat, remove lid from canner, and let jars stand for 5 minutes. Remove jars and set aside to cool.
5. After jars are cool, check the seals, remove the rings, wash the jars if needed, label and store in a cool, dark place. Store any jars that did not seal in the refrigerator and use within a week. Alternatively, transfer the contents of unsealed jars to a freezer container or bag and freeze. Use within 6 months for best quality.

Image Credit: Penny Pearson, 2025. 

To bake your pie: 

Preheat oven to 400̊°F (200°C). Prepare your favorite pie crust. Roll out the piecrust into a 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate. Drain 1/3 cup of syrup from 1 jar of pie filling into a medium bowl. Whisk in 2 tablespoons (30 mL) cornstarch until smooth. Add remaining pie filling, gently stirring to blend into cornstarch mixture. Pour into an unbaked pie shell in a 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate set on a baking sheet. Bake at 400°̊F (200°C) for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350̊°F (190̊°C); bake 25 more minutes or until golden brown. 

Want more pear and apple recipes? Join the Master Food Preserver Online Delivery Program in October and November for a series of pear and apple-focused online classes. 

Pear-Fection: Preserving the Flavors of Fall, Tuesday, 10/14/25, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Pear-Licious!: Preserving the Flavors of Fall, Saturday, 10/2, 10:00 - 11:00am

Core skills: Apple Butter & Dehydrated Apple Rings, Saturday, 11/8/25, 1:00 - 2:00 PM

From Orchard to Table: Apple Pie Filling & Freezing Apples, Wednesday, 11/19, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Henry Shaw, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer

Image Credit: Henry Shaw, 2025. 

Do you want to learn more about safe food-preservation techniques? Do you have a passion for sharing your knowledge with others? Are you willing to donate your time as a volunteer for a good cause? Would you like to help people in your community learn to preserve food safely in their homes, reduce food waste, increase food security, and provide engaging ways for Californians to explore healthy food? Are you a resident of California?  If so, you should consider becoming a UC Master Food Preserver yourself! 

Applications are now open for the 2026 UC Master Food Preserver training program.  Complete details of the application process, what the training entails, and the training schedule are available on the UC Master Food Preserver website. If you reside in a county that has a local county-based program, you should apply to that county’s program. Note that not all counties are conducting training in 2026 (see the website). California residents living in counties that do not have a county-based program (i.e., Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Contra Costa, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, and Ventura) are invited to apply to the 2026 training for the  Online Delivery Program.

Once trained, UC Master Food Preservers must volunteer a minimum of 50 hours in their first year, and 25 hours/year subsequently. To maintain their active status past the first year, volunteers are also required to complete 12 hours/year of continuing education and pass an annual recertification quiz.