Monthly Articles To-date

Michele Jones UC Master Food Preserver Online Program VolunteerCounty of residence: Placer Image credit: Maria Giovanni, 2025 Hi, my name is Michele Jones, and I am proud to be a recent graduate of the UC Master Food Preserver Program, graduating in June 2025. I grew up watching my mother and…

Paige Weisskirch, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer Freezing fruit at home is one of the simplest and most effective ways to preserve your harvest, or that great farmers-market haul, so nothing goes to waste. It gives you the convenience of having high-quality, ready-to-use fruit at your…

Monica Gross, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer There are a surprising number of uses for tomato skin! This article will explain how to make a powder out of tomato skins and what to do with that powder (Fig.1). Prior to canning tomatoes, it’s necessary to remove the tomato skin. This is…

Joy Agcongay, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer The Overlooked Step That Protects Your Dehydrated Foods: The Critical Step of Conditioning in Food DehydrationWhy Conditioning MattersConditioning refers to the process of evenly redistributing any remaining moisture across a batch of…

Jadrian Johnson, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer Image credit: Jadrian Johnson, 2025 If your childhood tasted like Atomic Warheads and early-generation Sour Patch Kids, you already know the joy of a good sour pucker. This recipe for frozen sour grapes brings that same zingy magic,…

Paige Weisskirch, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer Image credit: capecodprof from Pixabay, 2013 This month, many Americans celebrated Independence Day with home-canned jams, pickled vegetables, and smoked meats, foods that connect us to a long tradition of preservation. What many…

Maria Giovanni, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program VolunteerCounty of residence: Previously Butte, now lives out of state (CO) Image credit: Maria Giovanni, 2025 Do you ever think about the “why” and “how” of food?  I joined the UC MFP Online program from a different perspective than most…

Henry Shaw, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer It’s sometimes possible, but it’s not recommended. Can one reuse mayonnaise and other similar commercial product jars for home canning?  Some people have done so with some success.  But although it’s technically possible, it’s…

Ariel Patton, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer I often kick-off my summer by preserving strawberry jam, as the bright, ruby-red fruit overflows tiny green baskets throughout markets in the late spring and early summer. In California, strawberries are abundantly available and easy to…

Tim Long, UC Master Food Preserver Online Program Volunteer Commercial freeze-dried foods have been around for quite a while.Astronaut Ice cream for example: Image credit: Public Domain, 2025. For those who may be hikers or back packers, as I was while working with Boy Scouts, the commercial…