Canning: A food art passed through the generations

Those of us who grew up with fresh vegetables coming from the family garden instead of the local grocer are also familiar with canning and preserving as a way to save fruits and vegetables to supply the family with these delicacies through the winter months.

The ‘us’ I am referring to are the ladies now considered as the ‘over-the-hill-gang,’ almost reaching the “pickling” stage of life ourselves.

We learned as children at the knees of our mother and grandmother by helping in gathering the vegetables and snapping and ‘shelling a lot of beans. When growing up in this atmosphere, it is hard to ditch this way of preparing food. There’s still a few die-hards’ out there - like myself and some other friends who contributed information for this article- who still enjoy canning. We can’t compete with the quantity’ Libby, Green Giant, or Del Monte provides, but the quality’ of our canned products will top theirs any day.

Friend Joyce Payne picked four bushels of tomatoes from Dempsey Farms to can and still had time to ferment jars of her “last-of-the-garden” recipe, which includes cabbage, peppers, green beans, whole kernel corn and sauerkraut. She learned “fermenting” the old fashion way - from her mother, Maude Moore, who at 82 was interviewed by the newspaper the Coalfield Progress in Norton, Va., for canning 1500 jars of vegetables one summer. She had an outdoor stone dairy’ that stayed dark and cool year round, which was perfect for fermenting large crocks of sauerkraut and corn on the cob.

Joyce says that when she moved to South Carolina, she thought she’d never be able to ferment vegetables as her mother did because of our southern temperatures. But she discovered by keeping her laundry room dark and cool it allowed her to ferment’ perfectly. She says, ‘pickling,’ as they call it in Virginia, is an almost lost art.

Another friend, Charlene King, who more or less specializes in preserves, also learned canning from her mama. She makes the best fig preserves (my favorite). They are to die for. She has given me a small jar to have on hand for my passing from this earth to the land of milk and honey. What a great send off.

My sister-in-law, Violet Simmons, loved to can fresh snap beans from her garden. Not a bean went to waste on those bushes. The colorful jars of green beans welcomed you into her kitchen, displayed on an open Dutch-style’ cabinet. When that would hold no more, the rest were stored in the original box the quart jars came in and placed in a dark bedroom closet until time of need.

Joyce Crosby also still does her share of canning tomatoes and other vegetables, too, making at least 80 quarts of string beans from her summer and fall gardens.

I learned a lot concerning canning from my mama and had hands-on’ experience with my mother-in-law, Mammy.

One of her favorites was putting up ‘chow-chow.’ When the local farmers opened their fields for public picking, so nothing would go to waste, we would carry our baskets and harvest the vegetables needed for making this hearty relish.

Another relish I enjoy making is Zucchini Relish. The recipe was handed down by a cousin, Margaret Bowden. Over grown cucumbers can be substituted for the zucchini if desired. This is a delicious and very simple recipe that makes a nice gift-from-your-kitchen when shared with others.

Zucchini Relish:

10 cups zucchini, grated (five pounds)

4 cups chopped onion

5 tablespoons of salt

2 and ¼ cups vinegar

2 and ½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon each of nnutmeg, dry mustard, turmeric

2 teaspoons of celery seed.

1 Tablespoon of cornstarch

1 red bell pepper chopped

1 green bell pepper chopped.

Combine zucchini, onion and salt in large bowl. Let stand overnight. Drain well and rinse.

Combine with remaining ingredients and bring to a boil cooking 30 minutes.

Pour into clean hot jars and seal. This makes about 7 pints.

For anyone desiring to try their hand at canning, information can be found at the local library.

Also “The All New Ball Book of Canning & Preserving” 2016 edition can be purchased from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Happy canning.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 6:21 AM with the headline "Canning: A food art passed through the generations."