Start with one crop and one useful meal

For adult home gardeners and beginners who want a structured introduction to preserving and organising small household harvests.

Five practical projects cover frozen tomatoes, blanched frozen zucchini/courgette, refrigerator pickles, applesauce with a tested boiling-water method and dried herbs. A separate fermentation lesson teaches recipe checks rather than an improvised universal formula.

What you receive

10 illustrated English video lessons (about 18 minutes total) with synthetic narration, 10 full transcripts, 5 practical projects, exercises and worked answers, a 24-page coursebook, a 33-page workbook with 165 fillable fields, an offline HTML companion with note export/import, inventory templates, sources and a final project.

Digital self-study with illustrated videos, not filmed cooking demonstrations. No equipment, ingredients, personal coaching, instructor assessment or certificate. No guarantee that improvised or incorrectly handled food is safe. Household use only; commercial food production and pressure canning of low-acid foods are outside the course.

Your learning path

1. Plan one useful harvest project
   Choose a manageable batch that fits your household.
2. Choose a method and a reliable recipe
   Separate a preservation method from its required storage.
3. Freeze tomatoes for future cooking
   Prepare labelled tomato portions for cooked meals.
4. Blanch and freeze zucchini
   Organise blanching, cooling and packing before starting.
5. Refrigerator pickles and recipe boundaries
   Prepare one small refrigerator-pickle batch using the linked OSU recipe.
6. Applesauce with a tested canning method
   Use one complete applesauce canning method without mixing systems.
7. Dry herbs and check the endpoint
   Use an observed drying endpoint rather than a timer alone.
8. Evaluate a fermentation recipe
   Distinguish arithmetic practice from a validated fermentation recipe.
9. Build a pantry you actually use
   Track batches separately and turn stock into meals.
10. Finish a seven-day practical project
    Complete one traceable project and identify the next improvement.

Suggested pace: 20–40 minutes of study per lesson, plus recipe preparation and processing time. Try each exercise before reading the solution.

Before you buy

A device for PDF, HTML and MP4 files; a PDF reader with form support; internet to check current recipe sources; suitable kitchen equipment, storage and ingredients, purchased separately. The applesauce project requires the specified US pint canning system and altitude-adjusted processing. Do not substitute larger jars or mix preservation methods.