Image source: New Hampshire State Library
Did you know that it was in large part thanks to older Victory Gardening efforts that canning became widespread in America? There were even community-based facilities where folks could pool their resources.
However, as much as I dig Victory Gardening history, I'm not into the food storage stuff...canning and preserving. I don't have enough yield from my garden to motivate me to take it up. Plus, I was around all that stuff waaay too much as a kid.
Not just the odd batch of pickles in my mom's and neighbor's kitchens, either.
Thanks to my aunt and uncle (RIP) who owned a cannery outside of Houston, I've experienced small scale commercial canning in South Texas...in the summer. The associations with heavy perspiration and humidity make me queasy to this day. The word "vat" alone gives me a touch of anxiety. Ugh. Not pretty.
Any wonder that I'm a little reluctant to start canning in my own kitchen?
That said, sooner or later I'm going to have suck it up and learn to preserve food myself in those cute little glass jars. Like gardening, it's one of those skills that I want to acquire--even if it means working through my, um, issues. If I try it, it'll be when it's much, much cooler outside. Truth be told, it ain't all that hard...if you can follow a recipe, have the right supplies and possess functional common sense.
So, don't let my own anxiety stop you. You can learn to preserve your own food, too--if you haven't mastered it already! And if you're lucky enough to have a bumper crop in your own veg garden right now, you might want to get crackin' sooner rather than later.
Here are a couple of worthy recent links of note on the topic of canning and food storage:
- Killer Canning, or How to Choose Safe Canning Recipes and Avoid Poisoning Anyone (eatdrinkbetter.com)
- Sharon Astyk's Food Storage series - note that from time to time she offers web-based classes. Sounds like a winning idea!
For now, I'll sit on the sidelines and just soak up the information...though if my fall VG bears enough produce, maybe I'll personally revisit the topic later this year.
Hey, but freezing and oven-drying? Yeah, baby. I'm already there.
P.S. Family lore has it that my maternal grandparents met in a turtle canning factory outside Houston in the '20s. Since this blog is dedicated to my grandfather, this note seems like one worth making.
What's your POV on canning and food storage? Care to share tips and resources?
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