Preserving Food

If you’ve ever frozen food, you’ve preserved food. If you’d like to branch out into canning, dehydrating and fermenting, I’d love to be your guide.

Explore step-by-step tutorials, tips, and recipes to help you stock your pantry with homemade preserves, dried fruits and vegetables, tangy ferments, and freezer-friendly meals. These methods not only extend the life of your harvest but also bring the flavors of each season to your table all year long.

Preserving food is more than a skill—it’s a way to embrace simple living and stay connected to the food you grow or source locally.

I’ve written two books on preserving food, The Ultimate Guide to Preserving Vegetables and Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond.

Here are some free preserving food worksheets that will help you keep all your preserved food organized.

Fermented (naturally pickled) peppers – a step by step guide

Skip the vinegar and pickle peppers the old fashioned way by fermenting them. Fermented peppers give you all the storage benefits of pickled peppers without the vinegar taste. Make fermented jalapenos or fermented sweet banana peppers, the recipe and process is the same.

Fermented peppers easy to make and are fantastic for someone just beginning the fermenting journey. Sauerkraut. Isn’t that where everyone begins with fermented vegetables? I think it must be as there are many, many sauerkraut articles all over the place I think one of the reasons sauerkraut is such a great place to begin is … Read more

Beginner’s Guide to Fermentation

Fermentation is an old way of preserving food, before refrigeration or canning. Fermented foods include common items such as yogurt, cheese, and sauerkraut, plus less common items such as kefir, kvass, and kimchi. Learn why and how to make homemade fermented vegetables for optimum gut health.

Fermentation is an old way of preserving food – really old, as in before refrigeration and before canning. Back in the day, you either dehydrated or fermented food to keep it from spoiling. Fermented foods include common items such as yogurt, cheese, and sauerkraut plus less common items such as kefir, kvass, and kimchi. Years … Read more

Canning Tomatoes in the No-Waste Kitchen

Preserving tomatoes is like preserving summer! Learn how to get the most out of your tomato harvest by using up every bit of the tomato, including the extra juice and peels.

My absolute favorite thing to grow is tomatoes. I love that there are literally thousands of varieties to try. I love the flavor of homegrown tomatoes – store bought tomatoes just cannot compare. I even love the smell of tomato plants – which don’t really smell very good, but I love them anyway. So, for canning … Read more

Canning Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe – The Safe Way

A red bowl brimming with black bean and corn salsa sits surrounded by tortilla chips. The text “How to Safely Can Black Bean and Corn Salsa - SchneiderPeeps.com” is elegantly displayed at the bottom of the image.

My family loves salsa; we eat it on everything from eggs to tacos. My boys can polish off a quart of salsa and a couple of bags of tortilla chips in no time flat. Sometimes I like to serve a salsa that has a little extra nutrition, you know, to counter the bags of tortilla … Read more

Canning Corn with the raw pack or hot pack method

I love keeping home canned corn on hand. Although canning corn takes a little bit longer than canning other vegetables, it's totally worth it. There's nothing like the flavor of locally grown sweet corn during summer, and when you can your own corn you can enjoy that bit of summer all year long.

I love keeping home canned corn on hand. Although canning corn takes a little bit longer than canning other vegetables does, it’s totally worth it. There’s nothing like the flavor of locally grown sweet corn during summer, and when you can your own corn you can enjoy that bit of summer all year long. We … Read more

Making and Freezing Pesto Sauce in Canning Jars

Making and freezing basil pesto right in the jar allows me to easily preserve basil all summer long. There are no safe canning methods for pesto so freezing pesto is the way to go.

Every spring one of the first herb seeds I sow are basil seeds. I liberally scatter them in several places in the garden. I do this for one reason…pesto! We love pesto so very much and I refuse to pay $5 for a small jar of basil pesto. So each summer you’ll find me making … Read more

Canning Beef Stew for Convenience and Emergencies

Home canned beef stew is a wonderful way to prepare for emergencies - big or small. Your family is sure to love this recipe for canning beef stew in a pressure canner.

Canning beef stew is a great way to have meals-in-a-jar for lunches, quick dinners, and even emergencies. You can even use venison, lamb, pork, or other wild game in this home canned beef stew recipe. Every summer I find myself spending a few days canning beef stew, I make other canned soups and stews also … Read more

How to Preserve Lemons by Fermenting

A jar of fermented lemons rests on a wooden table, sealed with plastic wrap and a metal lid. In the background, citrus fruits and a knife are visible. Text reads: "Preserve Lemons with fermentation - SchneiderPeeps.com.

I used to think it was silly to preserve lemons because they were available year round at the store whenever I happened to need one. Then I tried my first Meyer lemon and preserving lemons became a necessity. We have an amazing lemon tree that gives us several hundred pounds of lemons each year. So, … Read more

Homemade Dried Lemons – an easy way to preserve lemons

Dehydrating lemons is a great way to preserve lemons for using through the year. Learn to make dried lemon slices, zest, lemon salt and lemon sugar.

Using a dehydrator or oven is a quick way to make dried lemons to use for food, seasonings, beverages, and crafts. While dehydrating lemons is not hard, there are a few tips you’ll want to be aware of before starting. During the winter, when lemons are in season, spend a little time making dried lemon … Read more

An Easy Dewberry Jam Recipe for Canning or Freezing

mason jars being filled with dewberry jam

Every year we forage dewberries which are a wild blackberry that grows in our area. We try to pick enough to last the entire year. We freeze some of the berries and we make a super easy dewberry jam recipe to give as gifts and to enjoy ourselves. This same method can be used to … Read more

Canning Beans: How to can dry beans at home

Canning dried beans at home can save you time and money. Learn how to make canned black beans, pinto beans, and other canned dried beans with this tutorial.

I love the convenience of having canned black beans and other dried beans on hand. However, I don’t like the price of buying canned black beans. So one of the first things I learned to can in my pressure canner was how to can dried beans. Every year I buy dried beans in bulk at … Read more

Ultimate Guide to Mustang Grapes {plus mustang grape jelly recipe}

jars of home canned grape jelly and grape juice with text overlay that says, make jelly and juice from wild grapes.

All along the rural roads in Texas there are wild mustang grapes and muscadine grapes that grow. Every summer we go grape hunting and pick enough grapes to make grape  jelly and grape juice. Mustang grapes and muscadine grapes are not the same plant, although most of us use the terms interchangeably, but they and … Read more