"Jars of canned vegetables"
The San Juan County WSU Extension Food Preservation Program
WSU Extension > San Juan County WSU Extension > Food Preservation

Food Preservation

Have a food preservation question? Want to know the best recipe to use for preserving your produce? Do you have a question about safely preserving food?

WSU has partnered with Oregon State University and the University of Idaho to create a series of Pacific Northwest Extension publications, available for download at no charge.  The most popular publications are available for download below, but you may visit the WSU Consumer Food Safety page for a more complete list of publications.

WSU Extension Publications

Additional Resources

National Center for Home Food Preservation (uga.edu) is an extensive site including video tutorials, preservation guides, and recipes.

The USDA offers a Complete Guide to Home Canning publication. The free, 196-page publication can be viewed and downloaded from the National Center for Home Food Preservation website. The publication is also available in a spiral, bound book format from Purdue University’s Education Store. Single copies are available for $18 per copy, and bulk discounted prices are available.

The University of Georgia has a comprehensive book available for purchase. If you are interested in purchasing a book for food preservation, this is the one we recommend. The 6th edition of the 388-page book So Easy to Preserve include Preserving Food, Canning, Pickled Products, Sweet Spreads and Syrups, Freezing and Drying. There are 10 new products and 2 revised product recommendations in this edition.  $25 includes shipping.

It is critical that you use only tested, approved preservation protocols and recipes in order to ensure food safety. Publications from universities and government sources include these safe practices. The Ball/Kerr company also produces publications that may be of interest, although we cannot answer questions about them as they are produced by a private company with their own testing labs. If you are interested in their recipes, we would suggest sourcing the most up to date Ball publications or website here Canning & Preserving Guides | Ball® Mason Jars (ballmasonjars.com) as recipes and protocols do change over time.