Homestead Production and Preservation

This unit develops practical skills for producing, protecting, processing, and preserving animal- and plant-based homestead products. Learners practice sanitation and safety, basic animal husbandry and apiculture, small-scale crop system construction, and multiple food-preservation and value-added techniques to move from harvest to storage and use. It builds on foundational safety and gardening units and prepares students for integrated application and capstone projects in Unit 4.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and apply cleaning, sanitizing, and sterilizing protocols to minimize contamination risks across food preservation, seed starting, beekeeping, and animal housing operations.
• Apply animal husbandry and apiculture practices by assembling and evaluating coop components and predator defenses, constructing a Kenya top bar hive, managing swarming/absconding risks, and performing a safe honey harvest.
• Demonstrate and adjust food-preservation and processing techniques — including water-bath and pressure canning with high-altitude adjustments, pickling, fermenting, blanching, drying, and taking accurate hydrometer readings — to produce shelf-stable, safe products.
• Design and construct small-scale production systems and value-added items by building raised beds and cold frames, starting seeds indoors, selecting watering and mulch strategies, experimenting with hydroponic/aquaponic methods, assembling required tools, and producing basic homestead goods (bread and molded/dipped candles).