HOME CANNING

                                                        

 With summer slowly winding down, there are signs of fall appearing. One of those signs is the canning kettle coming up from the basement to sit in the corner of the kitchen once more. For many of us, this is a time-honored tradition once used to preserve the harvest from the garden. In my hometown there was a cannery that bustled with business for many years, but it’s no longer there.  Canning, once a necessity, is now more of a habit from a fast disappearing way of life. Each ping of a sealing lid on a jar brings a quick smile to your face and some satisfaction for a job well done.

If we were concerned with the economics of this process, we would stop tomorrow. But if were worried about money, those thousand-dollar fishing trips for three fillets would be out too, wouldn’t they? No, it’s not about the money; it’s about taste and old family recipes you can’t buy in any store. It’s the secret ingredient in the pasta dishes that give it that special zing instead of that watery, tasteless tomato sauce from the store. It’s jelly or jam that tastes like the fruit it was made from, and not some bland, generic, sugary paste. It’s jelly you can’t even buy—like homemade chokecherry. It’s warm rhubarb sauce—long after the snow has come and buried the patch. It’s vegetables that don’t taste like the can they came out of.

Today’s fast-paced life for many women doesn’t give them time to even cook, let alone can or freeze fruits and vegetables. But there are some—my wife was included—that just take the time because it’s that important to them. Oh, I have heard the arguments many times against home preparation. How can you be sure it is safe, they say. I think your chances of getting sick are much higher from that salad you bought at the local deli, than from home-canned fruits and vegetables. I’ve been eating them for over sixty years with no bad effects. I once spent a night in the biffy from eating bad food from a fast food restaurant.

Despite my views and my love for home canned vegetables, I know that home canning will not exist much longer and it has nothing to do with safety or economics. Like so many things from a way of life we grew up in, it’s not being done widely anymore because our values have changed when it comes to our eating habits. The skills are not being passed on from mother to daughter, and in many cases are already lost. My daughters learned to cook from their mother, but my granddaughters don’t have a clue. They think carrots come from the jewelry store and a hot dish is one right out of the dishwasher that somebody else turned on, because their not sure how to. They have a stack of coupons stuck to the refrigerator door of every fast food place in town. Well, at least they are trying to save a buck, are they not?

Both my friend Harry and I lost our wives in the last year or so-- so this year it’s up to us. Come Friday morning, the canning kettles and the jars are coming out and these two old white-haired duffers are going to be canning tomatoes. I, for one, am looking forward to it.---Ping, ping, ping.