Fresh vegetables should be blanched before freezing, drying, or dehydrating.
How to preserve your own food
The University of Minnesota Extension food safety team provides reliable, relevant food safety educational programs and information that respond to an ever-changing food supply system.
The following guides focus on research-based methods for safely preserving your own food at home.
Step-by-step guides for home food preservation
Canning: All foods
A step-by-step guide for preserving food with boiling water bath, atmospheric steam and pressure canning.
Canning: Fruit spreads
Learn how to prepare jams, jellies, and other fruit spreads for canning.
Drying
Depending on the food, you can use a dehydrator, oven, microwave or solar and sun drying method.
Fermentation
How to ferment your fresh produce in six steps using the lacto-fermentation process.
Freezing
Freezing is a quick and convenient way to preserve fruits and vegetables at home.
Freeze drying
At-home freeze-drying equipment works well for preparing fruits, vegetables, dairy foods and proteins.
Pickling: Produce
Many kinds of produce can be pickled or acidified, not just cucumbers.
Over a century of food education for Minnesota
1916: When World War I caused food shortages, Extension agents traveled across Minnesota to teach canning classes and provide recipes for meals without meat or wheat.
1940s and 1950s: Extension nutritionists taught school lunch staff around the state how to transform surplus commodities into healthful meals.
2020: Interest in home food preservation surged during the COVID-19 pandemic when supply chains were disrupted. Preserving food at home remains popular today as people grow their own produce, support local farmers, reduce food waste, and find ways to manage their budgets.
Today: We continue to provide reliable, relevant food safety educational programs and information that respond to an ever-changing food supply system in areas such as foodborne illness, processing methods, food preservation and regulations.
Newsletter: Preserve It Fresh, Preserve It Safe
A bimonthly newsletter for those who preserve food at home. Articles come from members of the North Central Food Safety Extension Network, including the University of Minnesota Extension.Sign up to receive tips, recipes and the latest information on food preservation.
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