This membership is for anyone who wants to learn how to preserve their own food.

You might be at the very start of your preserving journey and would like to gain further knowledge, skills and confidence. Yay! This membership is for you.

Or perhaps you've been preserving food for a while and feeling confident with what you are doing but now want to branch out into new areas (e.g. pressure canning meats and vegetables) which is making you feel nervous. No problem, this membership will guide and support you through.

You might even have a pressure canner already, unopened and still in its box... waiting, waiting, waiting.... Let's release that pressure canner from its box and create some meals-in-jars for your family.

Or perhaps you haven't quite started the preserving journey yet but something inside you is urging you to reconnect with your food supply and get back to basics. You might even be developing vegetable gardens and planting fruit trees - if not, that's no problem, you can still preserve your own food.

Or perhaps you have some concerns about your ongoing food security and the rising cost of living and want to take some positive action.

Or maybe you just want to take back control of your food, know exactly what it is you are eating, be more self sufficient and break away from industrial food systems.

Whatever your reason, this membership is for you.

And it doesn't matter if you live on a farm or in an apartment (I'm on a quarter acre section). Big patch or small patch, preserving our own food is possible for us all and this membership will guide you on that journey.

Yes, there is a lot of support in place for you to succeed.

The Preserver's Kitchen membership is organised so that you can find the material you want easily and each module has supporting resources such as downloadable and printable guides, step-by-step instructions and videos.

Each preserving method has foundational information to help you understand the basics and get started - this includes video content where helpful.

Many of the recipes have video content so you can preserve alongside me in your own kitchen. You can even access the material in the Kajabi app on your phone - perfect when in the kitchen!

From there, there are lots of ways that you can ask questions or get support should you need it:

• the comments section under each piece of content (great if you have a question about a specific recipe or set of instructions),
• inside the private membership community in Circle (other members can help answer your questions too or benefit from the answer),
• sending me a message in Kajabi or Circle,
• emailing me,
• during the live Q&A sessions (2x per month) or live preserving sessions.

Your should find that you are well supported to succeed.

There is a lot you can do with basic equipment that you likely already have in your kitchen. I will always provide basic alternatives where they are an option.

You will need some special  equipment for certain things, e.g., a pressure canner (if you want to preserve meat and vegetables in jars) or a dehydrator if you aren't wanting to use your oven. For water bath canning, I will show you how to set up your own water bath canner. You will need jars and a big pot if you want to do any home canning (preserving food in jars).

There is no expectation or requirement to do it all so you can pick and choose what you'd like to do or what suits the equipment you already have.

You are in safe hands! I have a PhD in Bioprocess Engineering (that's just a fancy name for engineering for biological industries such as food, dairy etc). I spent over a decade as an academic teaching and doing research in the area of food technology. I am very well equipped to share the processes involved in preserving your own food and the safety considerations needed.

In 2016 I completed a week long Retort Supervisors' Certification course with DWC Food Tech in Australia. A retort is essentially a big pressure canner and the completion of this course allowed me to be able to sign off cooks for food manufacturers preparing low-acid foods (whether in cans, jars, pouches or trays).

I'm not a "rebel canner" but I do take the skills and knowledge that I have to adapt "approved recipes". I create a lot of my own recipes.

My focus is on members learning safe canning practices as it is the best place to start from. It is natural for people to take short cuts over time so it is best to start from a place of high standards rather than sloppy practices.

I do not recommend the water bath canning of low acid foods such as meat and vegetables and do not support this in the membership.

Lastly, I love to preserve my own food and hope that my enthusiasm will keep you inspired.

Yes it will! This membership provides you with the skills to preserve your own food and also the skills to adapt recipes to suit your own needs. In most cases, the most common allergens or intolerances (gluten, dairy, soy, nuts) are not present anyway as we tend to mostly be working with fruit, vegetables, meats, poultry and fish. 

If your family has dietary restrictions, rest assured that you are in good hands as my family does too.

• My family is strictly gluten free so you will see that all recipes are gluten free friendly (with gluten options for those who eat it).
• We use very little dairy in our household so recipes for meals using home canned foods will not contain any dairy with the exception of butter on occasion which could be substituted.
• We avoid soy so I will always provide alternatives to ingredients like soy sauce.

Lastly, when it comes to preserving, you can often reduce the sugar content down in recipes quite a lot. In the case of stewed fruits, the addition of any sweetener can often be avoided entirely. For bottled fruit pieces, you can use water or honey sweetened water in place of a syrup. I typically always reduce the level of sugars added to home preserves and the recipes I share reflect that.

Yes, you can cancel your membership at anytime.

If you have joined with the monthly membership option then you can cancel at anytime and your credit card will not be charged for the following month.

If you joined the annual membership then you can cancel before the anniversary of your joining and you will not be charged again.

Once your membership has been cancelled, you will no longer have access to the content or the community.

You are fully in control of cancelling your membership as this is done under your Settings once you are logged into the membership portal on this website.

If you decide to join again at a later date, we will be happy to welcome you back. Please note that you will need to sign up at the pricing current at the time of the new sign up.

I am 100% confident with the content, resources and support you will find inside this membership. I know that you can achieve great things with what is available to you. As this is a digital product with many downloadable recipes and guides, we do not offer any refunds.