Leftover food from holiday parties and meals need not go to waste, according to two UC Cooperative Extension Master Food Preservers (UCCE MFP) who appeared on Good Day Sacramento. Marijohn Bledsoe, UCCE MFP Capitol Corridor program coordinator, and Liesha Barnett, MFP volunteer intern in Solano County, were featured in a three-minute live shot from the UCCE office to talk about food dehydration, a safe way to preserve food for safe and healthy snacking.
The conversation first turned to turkey, which Barnett said can be dried into turkey jerky, popped into a plastic bag and right into a backpack for enjoyment during any outdoor activity. Leftover cranberry sauce can be dried with or without sugar into fruit leather and rolled in wax paper for easy packing. Dehydrated leftover veggies - like onion, carrots and celery - make easy soup add ins.
"Just toss them into a crock pot," Barnett said.
Bledsoe told the reporter that the UC Master Food Preserver program offers classes in safe food preservation to the public, and teaches interested members of the public to become Master Food Preservers' themselves and teach members of their communities how to reduce food waste by safely canning, drying and pickling produce, meats, and even whole holiday meals.
