Home » 4-H Opportunities » Projects » Family, Home, & Health » Food Preservation Project
Food Preservation Project
What is it All About?
Did your garden produce more tomatoes than you know what to do with, or are you just looking for some healthier prepared food options? In the food preservation project you will learn how to freeze and dry foods and make jams and jellies. You will also learn what to do with those tomatoes, cucumbers, and other advanced food preservation techniques.
Grow in Your Project
Beginner
- Identify basic types of food preservation
- Learn food freezing basics
- Learn to freeze fruits, juices, vegetables, meats, fish, and poultry
- Know how to properly thaw frozen products
- Learn food drying basics
- Learn to dry fruits, make fruit leathers, vegetables, and herbs
Intermediate
- Understand the basics of water canning
- Learn the difference for canning low acid and high acid foods
- Understand making altitude adjustments
- Learn the different between a hot pack and a raw pack
- Select the right produce and jars for canning
- Make salsa, jams, jellies, and pickles
Advanced
- Understand the basics of pressure canning
- Select a pressure canner
- Understand the types of produce, meats, poultry, and fish that require pressure canning
- Be able to prepare your jars and lids
- Conduct a taste test
- Properly label your products
Click Here for Food Preservation Project Member Resources
Take Your Project Further!
- Learn more about your local food systems by participating in a farm tour of one of your local farms
- Visits a farmer’s market to better understand local produce you can preserve
- Participate in Food Cook Off at Showcase Showdown, use foods that you preserved in your recipe
- Plan a special meal that incorporates preserved foods for your family
- Do a comparison on the value (monetary or nutritional) of home preserved foods vs preserved foods purchased in a store
- Enroll in the 4-H gardening project and grow your own food to preserve
Applying Project Skills to Life
Enhance Your Communication Skills
- Give a demonstration on food safety when canning
- Create a display on the different food preservation methods
Get Involved in Citizenship and Service
- Donate canned food to the local food pantry
- Work with your local food pantry to can items to preserve items that might otherwise be wasted
- Volunteer to help with a local community garden
Learn about Leadership
- Organize a food preservation workshop at your local library of community center
- Host a freezer meal making session
Showing What You’ve Learned
- Enter canned items
- Enter items you freeze
- Enter dried foods
- Create a display chart showing pH values of your favorite fruits and vegetables and the correct canning method to use for those foods
- Make a poster on the importance of head space
- Create a display on how to prevent oxidation
- Design your own labels for your preserved foods
- Make a favorite preservation recipe book
Adapted with permission from Wyoming State 4-H, Project Information Sheet, Food Preservation. Retrieved from: https://www.uwyo.edu/4-h/projects/healthy-living/foods-nutrition.html.
*Resources available at your local Extension office or shop4-H.org.
This page is optimized for printing
