Twelve participants returned evaluations from the Mason County Food Preservation program, including three new to Cooperative Extension programs. They learned the water bath, pressure canning, freezing and drying methods of food preservation. Participants identified their current skill levels as mostly intermediate (67%) with 25% identifying themselves as novices and 8% as skilled. Half of the participants reported learning about the program via the Homemaker newsletter; others from friends and other means. Most chose to attend the program because of a desire to learn, for personal accomplishment, to save money and to interact with others.

End of program evaluation results from participants in the Mason County Food Preservation program indicate an increase in food preservation skills using the water bath method. The responses for the Food Activity assessment produced mean scores of 88.7% correct for canning and 88.6% correct for freezing. The responses for the Food Preservation Basics test produced mean scores of 94.2% correct.  All (100%) of the participants reported that the food preservation program fulfilled their expectations. All (100%) of the participants agreed that they have better skills in home preservation methods following the program, that they understand the difference between low acid and high acid foods, that they can accurately prepare foods and containers for home food preservation, and that they can identify spoilage in home canned products.

Over half (54%) of the participants reported growing a garden this year. Participants reported using food preservation methods to can 85 pints of fruits, vegetables or fruit/vegetable products using water bath canning, dry 8 pints of fruits and vegetables, and freeze 72 pints fruits, vegetables, jams and jellies.