The Lost Art of Canning

My parents both came from hearty farm stock, and so self-sufficiency was always a priority. Preserving (canning, we called it) fruits, vegetables, and jams was just part of the yearly cycle. Applesauce, tomatoes, pears, peaches, beans, corn, carrots, pickles, grape juice...we did it all at one point or another.

Fall usually meant canning season, and for weeks at a time Mom would be busy canning boxes and baskets of produce, bought in bulk or raised in our garden. My job was usually scalding the peaches or tomatoes so mom could peel them easier. I got pretty good at it, and it was certainly better than some jobs we could get stuck with. I also spent a decent amount of time sorting fruit, as I recall.

My favorite memory of canning is "jam scum". Whenever Mom made jam she'd have to boil the solution, which created foam on the top. She'd have to skim the foam off before she put the solution into the jars, and after a full batch she'd get a fairly good container of jam scum. We'd come along with bread and butter, and spread some scum across it and eat it. Delightful! Especially on those occasions when Mom made a batch of home made bread, warm from the oven.

Fresh bread, butter, and jam scum - that's comfort food, I tell you.

As for unpleasant memories, there was the time when for some reason I thought Mom had been canning fruit when she'd actually been canning vegetables. She'd left a container out full of what I thought was sugar. She'd also left a teaspoon next to it, so I came along, grabbed a spoonful of sugar and popped it in my mouth. Except it was salt. I nearly threw up right there, and spent the next few minutes retching over the sink, trying to rinse the taste out of my mouth.

Today I'd say "serves me right."

Now that I'm out on my own I've tried some canning. It's a little tough with young kids around, so we haven't dont much, but the pear-sauce we made once turned out pretty nice.

Anyway, someone I work with is starting a website devoted to the "ancient art" of canning. It's a good resource, both for how-to's and, for people like me, memories.

Check out www.countryhomecanning.com sometime. And tell 'em Thom sent ya'.