Food Storage & Preservation · FOD-06

Food Preservation

Canning, dehydrating, freeze drying, and root cellaring — turning food you would lose into stock that keeps without power.

Course Overview, One Page

A single printable page covering what FOD-06 teaches, the 6 lessons, and what you need before starting. Useful for deciding whether the course is for you, or for handing to somebody in your group who is weighing it up.

Download the One-Pager (PDF)

Why This Course

BLUF: Every summer, households lose food they grew, raised, or bought at its cheapest because there was no way to keep it. Preservation turns that surplus into shelf-stable stock that keeps without power. Done right, it is one of the most valuable skills a prepared household has; done wrong, two of its methods can make food that looks normal and is not safe. Six lessons take you through all four core methods to a documented first run of your own.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

Match a food to the preservation methods that fit it, based on its acidity, fat, and type
Tell when a food can be water bath canned and when it must be pressure canned, and why
Find and follow a tested canning recipe, including altitude adjustment, and recognize a spoiled jar
Dry fruit, vegetables, and jerky to the right dryness and store them so they keep
Complete and document a first preservation run and bring its output into your inventory

Lessons 01–06

Lesson 1

Foundations of Food Preservation

Why preserve, how canning, dehydrating, freeze drying, and root cellaring each work, and how to match a method to the food and equipment you have.

Lesson 2

Canning Basics

Water bath canning for high-acid foods, pressure canning for low-acid foods, tested recipes, failure points, and spoilage signs.

Lesson 3

Dehydrating

Equipment and technique, safe jerky, dryness tests and conditioning, and storing dried food so it stays dry.

Lesson 4

Freeze Drying

How a home freeze dryer works, what it does not do, home versus commercial output, and the payback math.

Lesson 5

Root Cellaring

Cold storage without refrigeration, matching each crop to its conditions, and managing temperature and humidity.

Lesson 6

Capstone: Choosing and Starting Your First Preservation Method

Choose a method that fits your food and equipment, complete and document a first run, and log the output in your inventory.

How This Course Works

Step	What Happens
Work through the lessons in order	Each lesson unlocks the next once its knowledge checks are answered correctly.
Start from what you lose now	Lesson 1 begins with the food your household most often loses to spoilage, and the capstone builds around it.
Use tested recipes only	The canning and jerky lessons point to research-based sources such as the USDA and the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Complete the Lesson 6 capstone	Plan, run, and log your first preservation run, and enter the output in your FOD-02 tracker.
Use the Course Map to return	Completed lessons stay open for review, and the certificate unlocks there once all six are done.

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