Many individuals and families have taken an interest in Food Preservation in the last year. There is a lot of misinformation online about best practices for food preservation; safety when preserving food should be a priority and research based methods should always be used .After being contacted with questions and requests for information, the Cumberland County Family and Consumer Sciences Agent. Sessions included: jams and jellies, freezing basics, salsa and relish. These were lessons that were taught and led hands-on food preservation experiences for water bath canning and freezing preservation methods. 

21 participants were able to assist in making canned salsa, strawberry jam and zucchini relish. At the end of the program, participants were able to take these products home with them. The FCS Agent also conducted learning activities so that participants could practice identifying high and low acid foods which introduced them to the topic of pressure canning.

After the series, 100% of participants responded that they could identify the difference between low acid and high acid foods, 100% could identify safe , research-based methods of home food preservation and 100% demonstrated safe food handling and preservation methods in the hands-on portion of the series.