Rowokembu Village is one of villages in Wonopringgo Sub-district in Pekalongan Regency, Central Java. It has dense population with limited agricultural land. Vegetable garden and fish farming in bucket are among simpler yet effective strategies for this typical society. This program aimed to empower local community through training on vegetable garden and fish farming in bucket for the members of PKK (Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga) of Rowokembu. Training was given in the form of lecture and workshop. Changes on knowledge and perception was measured through pre-test and post-test. It was observed that the training managed to increase the knowledge, perception, and skills of the participants on developing vegetable garden and fish farming in bucket. The enthusiasm and participation, however, tend to decrease after training period. The fish showed high mortality rate presumably due to poor water condition, hot weather, the absence of aeration system, and improper feeding. The plants in the vegetable garden were attacked by pest. More intensive coaching/guidance was needed to ensure the sustainability of the program.

This study was aimed to obtain the best drying method of red chilies (Capsicum annuum L.) using a combination of microwave and fan as well as the characteristics of the dried chilies. Samples were subjected to drying step I, equilibration, and drying step II. Each drying step consisted of heating in microwave followed by blowing with fan repeatedly. The treatment of drying step I were 90 seconds of heating followed by 3 minutes of blowing for 7 cycles and 120 seconds of heating followed by 4 minutes of blowing for 5 cycles. Equlibration was done for 1, 2, and 3 hours. The drying step II consisted of 60 seconds of heating followed by 2 minutes of blowing repeatedly until final moisture content of <10%. All samples were analyzed for their moisture content, color, and vitamin C. The drying rates tend to decrease slowly during drying step I but faster during drying step II. The L* and a* of all samples were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The vitamin C of samples ranged between 66.53-72.68 mg/100 g and significantly decreased with increasing equilibration time. The treatment resulting in the best quality product with shortest drying time was 120 seconds of heating followed by 4 minutes of blowing for 5 cycles, 1 hour of equilibration and 60 seconds of heating followed by 2 minutes of blowing for 10 cycles.

Instant powder drinks are gaining popularity due to their practicality, durability, and ease of storage. As a result, fresh celery was converted into instant celery powder. The foam-mat drying technique was utilized to produce the celery powder because of its low drying temperature of 60°C and relatively fast drying process. To prevent food deterioration and enhance the characteristics of celery powder, the blanching process was employed. Tween 80 was also used to produce foam, which facilitated the foam mat drying process of celery. This study aimed to examine the impact of blanched or un-blanched treatment and the concentration of tween 80 on the physical and chemical characteristics of celery powder. The experiment used a completely randomized design with two factors, namely blanching treatment and the concentration of tween 80 (0.1%, 0.5%, 1.0%). Yield, water content, solubility in water, antioxidant activity, total phenol, and yield of celery powder were tested. The results indicated that increasing the concentration of tween 80 had a positive effect on the yield, solubility, antioxidant activity, and total phenols of celery powder products, but had a negative impact on the moisture content of the product. The treatment of un-blanced/blanching had a positive effect on the solubility, antioxidant activity, and total phenol of the product but a negative impact on the yield and moisture content of the product. The best celery powder product was produced by treating it with blanching and tween 80 concentration of 1%. It had the following characteristics: solubility of 93.87±0.28%, antioxidant activity of 251.22±4.67 mg AEAC/100 g, phenolic total of 77.44±2.80 mg GAE/100 g, and moisture content of 4.59±0.02%. The yield of celery powder obtained was 12.38±0.2%.