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Rows of Home Canned Food
Sunday, August 14, 2005

It seems to be a fading art if not totally lost. How unfortunate! Home canning was a way of life in decades past and I was recently pondering why it seems as if no one does it anymore. There are a few possible answers, but I realized at the same time that I do see canning racks and jars being sold in the stores, so maybe it is simply people I know not home canning any longer!

One of the best memories I have from my child and teen years is seeing shelf upon shelf in my grandparents' basement filled with foods that my grandmother had canned. The vividness of the colors is the first thing I remember. Peaches, pears, tomatoes, green beans, and an array of other fruits and vegetables filled those shelves. When I spent time there with them overnight, I could always be rather sure that she would be sending me to the basement shelves to retrieve some of those goodies for dinner.

When I became an adult, it was always my intention to do the same. I wanted to home can not only all those fruits and vegetables that I was used to seeing, but I wanted to do jams, jellies, and preserves in small jars as well.

I had the best of intentions. I even went to the library and researched how to home can various foods and was thrilled to find out that many things that my grandmother didn't can were possible to put into those jars! Soups, meats, and casseroles could all be canned and my head started spinning at the potential of what I could do.

My plan was to cook huge batches of soups and casseroles on the weekends and can them. I wanted to start with chili. Other times when particular fruits were in season, I could can those, too, and I'd watch for sales on vegetables. My biggest concern at that time was about having enough shelf space built for my rows and rows of colorful food artistry.

I hand copied (I didn't have a typewriter then and personal computers hadn't been popular yet!) instructions and recipes for enough home canned foods to last for a long time. I learned safety and health rules as well as procedure and I started pricing the racks and jars. At this point, I truly have no idea why I never once in my life home canned food!

There was one time I spent the day at my sister's house canning peaches and I remember it being very hot with all that cooking and steam in the house. I also remember that I was stunned at the final cost when everything was added up including the price of all those peaches we did. Maybe those were two factors that changed my mind, I'm not sure.

So for whatever reason, it's becoming a lost art. If I would have to guess at a reason people are no longer as interested, I'd say the cost of materials one needs in order to actually make it happen would be at the top of the list. Many of us remember the same rows of home canned treasures such as my grandmother had in the basement, but unfortunate as it is, it may have to remain only a memory.

3:12 PM

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