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by Marina Hsieh, Contra Costa County, Online Delivery Program VolunteerThe brilliant magenta fruits of the prickly pear cactus (aka “cactus pear” or “cactus tuna”) are ripe now in most climates! Juicing and freezing is an excellent way to compactly preserve this annual fruit for convenient year-round use,…

by Tim Long, Stanislaus County, Online Delivery Program VolunteerSalsa literally means "sauce" in Spanish and Italian.  And of course, it is a music genre/dance style you may have seen on Dancing with the Stars…but I digress—we’re talking about food products here.Traditional salsa is made from a…

by Sarah Donelson, Marin County, Online Delivery Program Volunteer Long before refrigerators, freezers, or canning jars, farmers in Bronze-Age Ireland used the environment around them to solve one of food preservation's oldest problems: what to do with milk when there's too much of it in one season and…

by Paige Weisskirch, Monterey County, Online Delivery Program Volunteer My grandmother hated being called old-fashioned. She read the new pamphlets, tried the new methods, and would have taken it as an insult to be told she was doing something a certain way just because it was familiar. And yet, there's…

by Maureen Ladley, UC Master Food Preserver of Solano/Yolo County Volunteer  Over the years, more than one of my acquaintances has assumed that if fruit isn’t very good fresh, turning it into jam is the right solution. After all, you’ll be adding sugar and cooking it, right? Unfortunately, jam is not a…

 The UC Master Food Preserver (MFP) program is a perfect combination of my passion for teaching and for food (playing with it and eating it)! I had never heard of Master Food Preservers until my husband discovered the inaugural Online Delivery Program training and suggested we both apply. That 2024…

by Katie Yamashita, Los Angeles County, Online Delivery Program Volunteer  Few preserving projects are as accessible as salt-cured citrus. There's no canner, no fermentation crock, no specialized equipment beyond a clean jar, and the ingredient list rarely goes beyond what's already on hand: citrus…

Three tips for making the best pickles by Ariel Patton, UC Master Food Preserver Online Delivery Program Volunteer There's nothing quite like a sweet, tangy, crunchy pickle to perfect your next sandwich. This bread & butter pickle recipe is an annual staple in my kitchen. With the amount of…

by Paige Weisskirch, UC Master Food Preserver Online Delivery Program Volunteer  Fruit leather is one of my favorite ways to use up fruit that is just past its prime: soft pears, a handful of mushy berries, peaches that need to be used today, or the apples that have lost their crispness but…

 My name is Paige Weisskirch, and I volunteer with the UC Master Food Preserver Online Delivery Program. I live on the Monterey Peninsula, which means I am lucky enough to live near the beach, but not exactly in backyard tomato country. It is foggy and cool much of the time, so big backyard…