James H. Cagle
Due to the sagging economy and the scarcity of food on the grocery shelves many people are turning to canning their own food again. Canning is hard work, but it will save on the grocery bill.
There was a time when canning was done by almost every household. Canning for many families was a necessity and was done in the home as a way of preserving food for the coming year. The canning process was done to kill the enzymes that are in the food in order to prevent spoilage. Vegetables and fruit and meat were canned. Jellies and relishes were made as well as pickles. Canning involved every member of the family and several days were set aside for putting food away through canning.
When I walked into a store and saw canning jars I was reminded of the Mason and Bell canning jars that my family used in canning. And that brought back memories from the good ole days.
I remember going to the field very early in the morning and picking peas or beans or tomatoes or pulling corn until lunch time. We then went home and poured our beans and peas out in the middle of the living room floor on a sheet and shelled until bedtime. The tomatoes got a good washing before they were stacked on a sheet in the kitchen. The corn was put on the back porch for shucking and silking. As my seven siblings and I sat in a circle around our great pile of peas and shelled my mother would take what we had shelled and begin working on getting them canned. The tomatoes were boiled and peeled, and the corn was cut off the cob and creamed before they were put in jars.
We canned peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, and corn. We put up figs, strawberries, blueberries, and wild plums. The wild plums we picked from the wild plum bushes that use to grow all along the once dirt roads in Bemiss. We would go into the swamp on my aunt’s land and pick mayhaws to make mayhaw jelly.
After the canning jars were filled and then sealed, they were left on the kitchen table to cool before they were put away. As they were cooling down, they would make a popping sound when the jar sealed.
Later when we got a big chest freezer, we put a lot of our food in freezer bags and froze them. It was quicker and easier than canning but the frozen stuff didn’t taste as good as the canned stuff.
Canning is a lot of hard work but it’s worth it. It can be fun, educational, and will save money. It’s something the family can do together. It’s time better spent than playing on some electronic device.
If one decides to do some canning, make sure you get some good instructions. You don’t want to go through the whole process of canning to find when you go to use your canned food that it is spoiled because you failed to follow some important detail in the canning process. A person can get these instructions possible from the county agriculture office, or if you have an older relative or neighbor, you can ask them. They probable did a lot of canning in the good ole days and might even like to help you through the whole process. Happy Canning.
