Home canning is undergoing a huge revival.
What does today’s cohort of people doing home canning look like, roughly? What’s driving them, what do they value, and what do they want to achieve?
- 1 Younger people joining the ranks
- 2 Living in towns and cities, not just rural any more
- 3 Canning skills skipped a generation
- 4 Saving money through home canning
- 5 Organic canning
- 6 Fear of killing someone
- 7 Going local and getting your food off the grid
- 8 Canners now want sugar and salt smart home canning
- 9 Health
- 10 Home canning as a sustainable activity to reduce carbon footprint
- 11 Food Security / Preppers
- 12 Gourmet, more adventurous home canned goods
- 13 Desire for creativity
- 14 Home canning for gifts
- 15 Time saving
- 16 The nostalgia of home canning
- 17 Today’s canners want to know the “whys”
- 18 Today’s canners want weight equivalents to work with
Younger people joining the ranks
For many years, the age bell curve on the home canning audience swelling upward, and it seemed at times that the practice was fated to be lost if the trend continued.
The curve has swung back considerably, though, as younger people rallied to revive the practice of home canning.
“Canning is not just for rural grandparents anymore. Americans of all ages and areas are returning to our roots and canning to capture fresher, more affordable flavors……
With nearly half of canners aged 40 or younger, the demographic of canners is shifting from Baby Boomers to Generations X and Y.
“Canning … is gaining more popularity among the Millenial generation… this may be because of the rise of Pinterest and blogs, making information more available to those who have never canned before. An awareness of nutrition and a desire to avoid processed foods might also contribute to the trend. ‘This generation that’s getting really excited about it is completely different,’ Roberts said. ‘They exercise, they run marathons — they’re just a little bit more aware of their surroundings than (the baby boomers).’ ” [1]Fry, Rachel. A new generation is discovering the joy of canning. Logan, Utah: The Herald Journal. 10 September 2013. Accessed March 2015.
The Ball Canning Supplies’ company market research told them several years ago that their current customer base, instead of aging, was actually becoming much younger:
“[Ball’s] market research shows that the new generation of home canners consists of not rural grandmothers but urban women under the age of fifty-five. (More than 60 percent of the canners who are members of Ball’s Facebook community are under the age of forty-four.)” [2] Weigl, Andrea. Pickles and Preserves: Savor the South series. University of North Carolina Press. 2015. Introductory pages.
Ball’s further research in summer 2015 confirmed the trend:
“In a return to our culinary roots, Americans across the country – most notably millennials – are turning to home preserving this summer to preserve and savor all the delicious flavors of fresh grown produce. Research conducted by ORC International on behalf of the iconic Ball® brand canning line determined that nearly half of all millennials (49%) are interested in canning this summer. [3] Jarden Press Release. United States Of DIY: Nearly Half Of All Millennials Are Interested In Canning This Summer. 21 July 2015. Accessed July 2015 at https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/united-states-of-diy-nearly-half-of-all-millennials-are-interested-in-canning-this-summer-300116284.html
Living in towns and cities, not just rural any more
People in towns are canning again:
… almost half of canners live in suburban areas, signaling that canning is no longer reserved to rural communities.” [4] Canning on the rise. Allrecipes.com .
The Chowhound review editors have noted, “Urban homesteaders revived home canning a decade ago….” (2013 Chowhound Editors review. [5] Chowhound Editors. This Big, Heavy-Duty Canner Is Our Summer Jam. 12 August 2013. Accessed July 2015 at https://www.chow.com/reviews/21-victorio-stainless-steel-multi-use-canner
This could mean at least two things for many of today’s canners:
- This can mean condo, apartment and smaller house dwellings, with a corresponding reduction in storage space for home canned food;
- It also means that for them, the produce source might not be gardens, but urban markets, which could make canning a year-round activity. What’s in season becomes no longer what’s ripe out back, but rather, what’s in abundance and going cheaply right now at the stores and markets.
Canning skills skipped a generation
The Baby Boomers didn’t can. They bought into the commercial promise, “buy our canned goods and we’ll take care of you with healthy food at a fair price.” And, they grew up in an era of rising taxes and other costs. So everyone in the household went out, and worked, and when they got home, they enjoyed the leisure of freed-up time from the kitchens by heating up processed food.
“Until the arrival of our modern grocery stores, canning remained common in nearly every household. It was a necessity and a way of life. Contrast this with today. Only a couple generations have passed and the art of food preservation has been lost to the vast majority of people.” [6] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
The Baby Boomer generation might make the odd strawberry jam now or then, but just didn’t feel that they had a need to can. so their children were unable to learn by watching:
“Hamacher, whose mother [had] canned extensively, said she never canned as an adult until her grown daughter asked for her help in recent years.” [7] Stephens, Dave. Home canning makes comeback. South Bend, Indiana: South Bend Tribune. 22 August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
One observer noted of the new canners that they “may not be trained in safe home food preservation techniques.” [8] Meisenbach, Terry. New Generation of Home Canners Learn Online through Preserve @ Home. 4 April 2013. Accessed March 2015 at https://about.extension.org/2013/04/05/new-generation-of-home-canners-learn-online-through-preserve-home/. What we do know is that having someone pass onto them “the old ways” would have been no guarantee of safe canning being taught, either. The previous generations did do some hinky canning, based on what was known in their days. So the loss of bad skills that happened with the generational skip may not be entirely a bad thing.
The re-training required of this new generation could be a good opportunity to start afresh, with safe, modern techniques being spread. That’s if safe canners can get to them first before people who “rediscover” canning books from the 1930s (that killed people) and start blogging about how kewl the ideas are.
“While canning may seem like a family tradition passed down from generation to generation, younger people joining the canning craze are looking first to the Internet as a resource. Fifty–two percent of survey respondents said they are using the Internet to find information on canning ….” [9] Canning on the rise. Allrecipes.com .
In the “old ways”, there was so much dangerous was mixed in with the good. New canners have the opportunity to approach canning as the modern, safe science that it is in 2015.
“I wish I could say I learned as a child at my grandmother’s side. The real story is that I learned alone with a shiny new boiling water canner, a ‘Ball Blue Book,’ and the Internet.” [10] Estis, Kristina. Beginners Guide to Canning Food. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
Saving money through home canning
One might think from glossy blogs and magazines that many of today’s canners are doing it for health, as a political statement about food independence, or from gourmet, foodie impulses. In fact, though, the Ball company found that “… 61 percent of canners’ greatest motivation is saving money. ” [11] Canning on the rise. Allrecipes.com .
Mother Earth News reported,
“Most readers agree they save money by canning food. How much they save depends on how much food they grow: Reported savings ranged from $75 a month to a whopping $400 a month. Growing a garden slashed Vickie Barbour’s grocery budget in half. Canning reduced it by half again, ‘especially because it’s changed the way we think about food. We no longer buy groceries based on what we want to eat. We buy groceries based on what we have.’ If you can’t grow all of your food, you can save the most by buying seasonal ingredients in bulk.” [12] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. June / July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
Jonathan Ewald, an editor at the Life and Health Network, notes:
“Buying or picking foods in season and canning them for future use can save you some extra money. This is especially true when you consider the quality of the foods you are getting.” [13] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Savings certainly come in fast when you start making your own tracklements and preserves, as opposed to buying them:
“…you may be surprised to know that those decadent jams that you drool over in the local upscale kitchen store can be reproduced for pocket change.” [14] Wimbursh-Bourque, Aimee. 9 Good Reasons to Can Your Own Food. Simple Bites Blog. 10 September 2010. Accessed March 2015.
The big savings may come in through pressure canning, though. Yes, you have to buy a pressure canner, but once you have it, you can can veggies for pennies on the dollar when they hit their peak season in the summer and fall at the markets, and you will find yourself — even if just out of laziness — planning quick, nutritious weeknight meals based on that store of already-prepped bargain veggies.
If you keep a stock of jars of home pressure canned soups and chili to take for lunches, lunch spending during the week will plummet.
To be sure, many people at first wonder just strictly cost-wise if home canning is worth the time and energy, compared to saving money by shopping the sales and stocking up that way. As you get experienced, two people can prep and ready for the canner 20 half-litre (US pint) jars of asparagus in 40 minutes; 1 person in an hour. And that’s completely following all procedures down to the jit and tottle including double washing of the asparagus and vinegar-water wiping of jar rims. That’s an instant, fast-food veg ready for many meals ahead. And if you get the asparagus in season at the markets when they are practically paying you to take it away, the cost per jar is just pittance.
Of course, the “luxury” items such as chutneys and jams will always be more spendy to make. Fruit is only cheap for a very short few weeks a year, so if you want cheap jam you have to be prepared to leap high and fast when it is in season near you. But ingredients like raisins and dates are expensive at any time of the year.
With home canning, your entire way of shopping changes. You shop your pantry, instead of a store. Just like people did before supermarkets:
“Grandma’s grocery list consisted of flour, sugar, coffee, salt, and spices. The rest of their food came from what their hands and land produced.” [15] Diane Oit Whealy. Seed Savers Exchange Co-Founder. In Seed Savers 2015 Catalog. Decorah, Iowa. Page 93
All that being said, if you do home canning extensively, even counting the cost of energy in, your grocery budget will collapse. You will be staggered at how little you are spending on groceries. And, if you compare like for like, which is to say the cost of your all your sugar and salt-free home-canned goods with the premium that stores charge for such “health” products, the savings are even higher.
Organic canning
Many people want to be making organic home-canned goods, whether they grew the produce or bought it.
“Choosing and preparing the produce yourself gives you control over the use of pesticides, sodium, sugars or potential allergens.” [16] Estis, Kristina. Beginners Guide to Canning Food. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
Some people feel that a lack of chemicals on the produce leads to better tasting home canned goods:
“Home gardeners often use fewer pesticides – if they even use them at all. This translates to far fewer harmful chemicals being trapped in canned foods and becoming a health hazard. Chemical preservatives aren’t used in home canning, which means foods retain their natural flavors, textures and nutritional value.” [17] Estis, Kristina. Beginners Guide to Canning Food. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
Using organic product, however, may bring them into conflict with the kind of zealous advice that crops up from time to time about only using the most perfect of produce.
“The advice to use only perfect foods is fairly recent; apparently some Aggie School Ph.D. candidate has discovered that mold, mouse or bug damage to fruits and vegetables can extend well beyond the obvious harm. And it makes some sense. Certainly, that sunken black spot on an otherwise perfect-appearing tomato can indicate fingers of black fungus rot that extend throughout the fruit. Still, the perfect-foods-only rule will be hard for organic gardeners to obey, since it often takes a peck of poison to guarantee absolutely blemish-free foods. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll skip the sprays and stay with the common sense rule to cut away all damage inside and out.” [18] Vivian, John. Home Canning and Storing Foods Safely. Mother Earth News. August/September 1999.
Official canning advice from the USDA and its agents has not traditionally been very friendly to natural farming. Take this advice about canning only perfectly shaped peppers:
“Select chiles that are mature, heavy for their size, smooth and symmetrical, bright green in color, fresh, and crisp. Avoid misshapen pods.” [19] Flores, Nancy. Canning Green Chile. New Mexico State University. E-308. May 2008. Accessed May 2015.
This kind of statement risks having all official advice lampooned by today’s canners who believe that it’s okay for bananas and cucumbers not to have regulation shapes at all times.
Fear of killing someone
Many would-be canners are aware that home canning can go to the bad place. They are frankly afraid of making someone or themselves sick, or worse.
“Through our consumer research program, we uncovered that while many consumers possess a significant interest in canning, they have two problems with it: a deep unease about the process and a dislike for the inconvenience involved. Many people have grown up with a parent or grandparent who canned and have deep emotional attachments to the process, but the fear of doing it wrong is an insurmountable barrier. Could I make my children sick? Do the jars need to be sterilized? Don’t those pressure cookers explode sometimes?” [20]Ball FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System. Making Canning Mainstream. Case Study by Altitude Inc Consulting. Somerville, Massachusetts. Accessed March 2015.
Here’s a not untypical expression of fear:
“Does anyone else spend their entire day in the kitchen, cooking and canning, feeling that satisfactory feeling… Only to end the day in doubt or fear of food safety or that ‘one little thing’ going wrong? Don’t get me wrong, I am not doubting my abilities. But after reading all the old threads on here concerning published sources for canning recipes, I find myself with my blood running cold with doubt.” [21] User ellen_inmo. Posted 13 August 2012. Accessed March 2015.
If you stick, though, to tested recipes and techniques from trusted, reliable sources, you can be guaranteed 110% of safety; the safety margins they have “costed in ” are absolutely massive.
“There’s no reason to be afraid of canning food, because ensuring safety is entirely possible. The basic rules of canning are simple and practical. It’s important to follow those rules and to use tested recipes.” [22] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
Part of the problem is the Safe Canning Police. While of course it’s vital that canners learn the best techniques for optimum quality and safety, the Safe Canning Police vigilantes get frissons of joy every time they lob the Big B word at other canners to see how many people they can scare off:
“Experienced canners say that the warnings unnecessarily discourage novices.” [23] Moskin, Julia. Preserving Time in a Bottle (or a Jar). New York Times. 26 May 2009. Accessed March 2015.
Going local and getting your food off the grid
Many of today’s canners want to preserve flavour and nutrition, not just “food.”
H.J. Heinz dedicated himself to making the highest quality food products at the lowest possible price so that people would stop home canning and buy his products, instead. It worked; people came to trust Heinz and accept his deal. But now, many people feel that the industrial food giants have betrayed consumers’ trust by flipping that proposition around: the lowest possible quality at the highest possible cost. In reaction, people want to take back control of their food.
The canning is an extension of what has been bringing people back to farmers’ markets in the first place.
Canners now want sugar and salt smart home canning
Many canners today are trying to avoid excessive amounts of sugar and salt in commercially made foods, but are dismayed when they find that the amounts in “tested, recommended” recipes are even higher than what they could buy.
Many USDA Extension Agents just repeatedly tell would-be canners to suck it up, and use the old recipes with those boatloads of salt and refined white sugar. It worked for many decades, as canners went away and grudgingly did as they were told.
But today’s canners won’t. Times have changed. For instance, the highly influential program “Weight Watchers” has introduced SmartPoints, which zeros in on added-sugar in foods and heavily punishes those foods, so that people have to avoid them almost completely in order to stay on program. Others are just aware of the dangers of hidden sugar in their foods.
Consequently, some people just decide against canning period, rather than produce such unhealthy food. Others will look for another recipe from somewhere else, even if that recipe is not “tested and approved.”
Here’s a canner who, rather than use boatloads of sugar to satisfy a classic pectin’s requirements — decides to do something else, rather than compromise and put the demands of some commercial pectin maker over his personal health requirements:
“I was going to can them up as apple pie filling with cinnamon and nutmeg, but the pectin Marie bought for me insisted that it be used only with real sugar, not a sugar substitute or it won’t thicken. I was planning to use Truvia because we can’t use all that sugar. Change of plan: Plain apples it is.” [24] Douglas, Allan. Canned Apples. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. 2 September 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Many of today’s canners will look at some of the “approved” recipes and see them as essentially “toxic”, owing to all the salt and refined white sugar:
“When we think of preserved food, however, we often conjure up thoughts of sticky, sweet jams and jellies and salty pickles and sauerkraut. The treats from the kitchen of a home food preserver are tasty, but it’s not exactly health food, right?” [25] Roche, Brenda. Home preserved foods: Nutrition friend or foe? Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California blog. 27 September 2011. Accessed March 2015.
While it’s important that safe canning techniques always be put first so that one does not die tomorrow from what you ate today, the new generation of canners will not accept something that is slowly going to be damaging their health, either:
“From our modern perspective we can also see that several of these [Ed: preserving] approaches tend to be unhealthy. Either the process itself causes harm to the food (i.e. the smoking process generates carcinogens), or the process involves adding enormous amounts of unhealthy compounds, such as salt and sugar. Those interested in preserving food for health reasons will find many older methods wanting.” [26] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
And, tastes have just plain changed.
“Many American home-canning classics — the kinds that win prizes at county fairs, like peas and carrots, dilled green beans, fruit jellies stiffened with pectin — are considered too sweet, too plain or too artificial by these cooks.” [27] Moskin, Julia. Preserving Time in a Bottle (or a Jar). New York Times. 26 May 2009. Accessed March 2015.
Health
Today’s canners don’t just want to just food in a jar and have it last. They want to know the food is healthier than what they can buy:
“Still others choose to home can to provide healthy food for their families. Homegrown vegetables are higher in nutrients than their commercially grown counterparts, and home canning means nutritious vegetables can be preserved at the height of their freshness without chemical preservatives.” [28] Estis, Kristina. Beginners Guide to Canning Food. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
People also like knowing what is not in their food:
“Because you canned it yourself, you will know exactly what you are eating. You can be assured that the food was fresh and high quality. You will also be enjoying food that is free from harmful additives and preservatives. ” [29] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Some people just want more control over the overall makeup of the food product. Weight Watchers members might be fed up at seeing a dollops of ketchup or relish eat up a chunk of their daily points because of all the sugar used to bulk out the flavour. And if they buy a low-sugar kind, then the manufacturer punishes them by cranking the sodium to the sky. Other people might want to know the content was organic, or all local, or fair-wage harvested (or slave-labour harvested by your kids from the back garden!) “The money is not the point with me,” says Nancy Brewer. “Having control over the content is more important.” [30] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. June / July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
Home canning as a sustainable activity to reduce carbon footprint
Home canning of foods is one of the “greenest” ways of storing food that we have, certainly compared with refrigeration, or freezing:
“Are canned foods sustainable? Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of present generations without jeopardizing the needs of future generations. Preservation reduces waste — this and the need for constant availability of food are what drove the invention of canning…. For the consumer the waste from shelf-stable, canned foods is very low compared with fresh and chilled products. Thermally processed foods provide excellent nutrition over extended periods, all year round, anywhere in the world. Glass, tinplate, aluminum, and many plastics used in thermally processed products can be recycled. Compared with other types of food processing thermal processing produces low greenhouse gas emissions. Thermally processed foods are sustainable.” [31] Featherstone, Susan. A Complete Course in Canning and Related Processes: Volume 2. Cambridge, England. Woodhead Publishing. 2014. Page xxxiii.
Home canning involves a lot of re-use, and using something that would otherwise be spoiled:
“Many appreciate that home canning is environmentally friendly in a tangible way: glass jars can be reused for years (or in my home, repurposed as drinking glasses), a bumper crop that would spoil before it can be consumed doesn’t go to waste, peels become compost, and fuel is not used to transport goods from farm to factory to table….A parent would be hard pressed to find a better way to encourage environmental stewardship and self-sufficiency in a child.” [32] Estis, Kristina. Beginners Guide to Canning Food. Blog Entry on Grit: Rural American Know-How. August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
The weak point of the re-use argument is the single-use metal lids; that can be solved by switching to a re-usable closure system such as Tattler lids. With lids such as that, 100% of the jar system becomes re-usable.
Instead of driving to a grocery store to shop for food packed in single-use packaging, home canners do their shopping from their pantry:
“Food-filled jars line the walls of Jenica Cory’s pantry, much like they did at her grandmother’s house. Stewed tomatoes, green beans, applesauce, chicken soup, pickles. Cory, the mother of two young girls, didn’t grow up preserving, or ‘canning,’ food in her home. But now…. ‘We try to live more sustainable,’ Cory said.” [33] Stephens, Dave. Home canning makes comeback. South Bend, Indiana: South Bend Tribune. 22 August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
The Government has Ontario has noted:
“Home canning has been regaining popularity as part of the local food movement and the desire to be more environmentally friendly.” [34] Parto, Naghmeh. Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (Public Health Ontario). Home canning: literature review. Toronto, ON: Queen’s Printer for Ontario; 2014. ISBN 978-1-4606-4166-8 [PDF] page 9.
And the Government of Canada, too, has noted the connection between home canning and environmental action:
With the renewed popularity of seasonal, local eating, and the desire to be more environmentally friendly, many people are looking to home canning (also known as home bottling) to keep food for later use.” [35] Government of Canada. Home canning safety [Internet]. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada; [updated 2013 Feb 8; cited 2013 March].
Home canning can drastically reduce your carbon footprint:
“Canning your own food is an excellent way to reduce your environmental impact. Especially if the food is home grown, you remove the countless miles food is shipped from the farm, to the factory, and then to the distributor and local store. You also reduce packaging waste because canning jars (except for the lids) are reusable and will last for years.” [36] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Of course, sometimes the best deal in a market can be on produce shipped in from vast distances away. Each canner must then make his / her own call.
Food Security / Preppers
Learning to can food is certainly what they would call a “lifeboat skill”: a skill that would get you voted onto a lifeboat. Preserving food reliably is one of the most valuable skills that humanity has ever had:
“Many people are worried about the times that we live in. If something happens to our economy or our ability to affordably purchase food, people want to be prepared. Learning to can is just one of the steps people tend to take—if you ask us, it is a lot more practical than a bomb shelter.” [37] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Some people like the food security aspect of home canning, both in terms of power-outages:
“…the more foods you store without electricity, such as home-canned goods, the more secure your food supply will be — especially if you have limited freezer space or experience a prolonged power outage.” [38] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. June / July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
And, in terms of hard financial times:
Canned foods provide food security during lean years… ” [39] Rayner, Lisa. The Natural Canning Resource Book. The Natural Canning Resource Book. Flagstaff, Arizona: Lifeweaver LLC. 2010. Page 63.
Or, just plain food security in the event that anything happens:
“Having a certain degree of food independence is important. It’s good to know that you can feed your family if the unexpected does happen.” [40] Plemmons, Skip (2014-09-14). Next Generation Home Canning: Contemporary and Fun Recipes for Beginners . Kindle Edition.
For these people, canning is not an occasional hobby:
“People don’t do this to make gifts to give at Christmas time,” said [Lorraine Stevenson of Farmers’ Independent Weekly in Stonewall, Man]. “They do it as a way to feed families.” [41] Prairie home canners lose lids, temper. CBC News. 26 August 2002. Accessed March 2015.
Some people get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing they have the skill:
The primary reason many readers can is because they regard it as an unparalleled self-sufficiency skill. Linda K. Hodgen, a graduate of the Master Food Preserver program at the Washington State University Cooperative Extension, thinks food preservation is more than a hobby. ‘It is a fundamental life skill that should be taught to every boy and girl in America.’ ” [42] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. June / July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
Many old-time canners have pointed out, “This is how our grandmothers and great grandmothers fed their families, and if you didn’t can it, you went without.”
Gourmet, more adventurous home canned goods
For starters, even the simplest, most the banal looking USDA Complete Guide recipe will surprise you. Deceptively simple looking, even boring, it will in fact taste miles better than industrially made food:
“It is not personal preference, it is not self-delusion: no commercially canned product tastes as good as locally grown, harvested in season, homemade preserves.” [43] Wimbursh-Bourque, Aimee. 9 Good Reasons to Can Your Own Food. Simple Bites Blog. 10 September 2010. Accessed March 2015.
Slowly replacing industrially processed food with home canned food will upgrade the food you are putting on your table, at a fraction of the cost that stores would charge for their “slightly better” products:
“You may be surprised how gourmet your home canned food can taste… It’s a fact, homemade food simply tastes better. You can’t beat a quality home-canned product made from fresh, locally grown ingredients. In the store, you could easily pay double for such a product. Even if your initial investment fails to save you money (due to buying jars, a canner, etc.), you’ll have a healthier, tastier product stocked in your pantry.” [44] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Lisa Rayner, author of The Natural Canning Resource Book feels that home canning upgrades your overall quality of life:
Canned foods have a different, and sometimes preferable, texture than dried foods and contain more vitamins, antioxidants and other phytonutrients than dried foods….Canning adds undeniable variety, luxury, and convenience to life with ready-to-eat canned fruits and vegetables, juices, broths, soups, pickles, salsas, chutneys, jams and other preserves. Canning enhances our quality of life.” [45] Rayner, Lisa. The Natural Canning Resource Book. The Natural Canning Resource Book. Flagstaff, Arizona: Lifeweaver LLC. 2010. Page 63.
Store bought tinned vegetables taste nothing like home canned. If you avoid tinned vegetables because of the taste and texture, you will leave all that experience behind when you first taste home canned:
“But apart from all the practical reasons to love canning, the flavours are the biggest plus. I was brought up to think that preserved foods were second rate and nowhere near as tasty as fresh. What I have experienced first hand confounds these ideas. By following correct practice and keeping cooking times safe but to a minimum, you can capture the most intense and delicious flavours in a jar, capture the absolute essence of those ingredients.” [46] Nicol, Gloria. Just Mad About Canning. Laundry Etc. Blog. 13 February 2013.
Some people can simply because the type of canned goods or preserves they want are just not commercially available, for love nor money:
“Today, home canning and preserving attracts the interest of people of all ages and income levels. It attracts the interest of urban, suburban and rural populations, of people who can for purely practical reasons, such as those who can’t afford not to, and people who can for purely frivolous reasons, like hard-core foodies pursuing exclusive, exotic food experiences and elite eaters collecting culinary delicacies.” [47] Plemmons, Skip (2014-09-14). Next Generation Home Canning: Contemporary and Fun Recipes for Beginners. Kindle Edition.
Home canning enables people to make the variety of jams, relishes and chutneys that disappeared decades ago. Modern stores sell only three flavours of jam, three types of pickles and three of relish — perhaps a one or two more from time to time in response to trends. In home canning, there used to be at least 100 different varieties just of ketchup alone.
Having access to a larger stocked with such preserves is indeed a modern foodie’s dream. But, in a way, dollops of side condiments with their spices and their sweet and sour balance skips back to the cooking of the Middle Ages: (“…the cookery of the Middle Ages and its reliance on generous dollops of spices and sugar to flavor food.”) [48] Craughwell, Thomas J. (2012-09-18). Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulée: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America (Kindle Locations 165-167). Quirk Books. Kindle Edition.
A few skeptics, in fact, think it’s only the foodies who are canning these days:
“Home canning is a luxury today, but an affordable one and immensely rewarding. In contemporary America, Mason jars are as likely to hold pencils as apricot jam. But home canning has gained traction among a certain class of urban locavores. ‘It’s kind of for the foodies,’ Smith says. ‘Do I think it’s a mass movement?’ he adds. ‘No.'” [49] Greenbaum, Hilary and Dana Rubinstein. Who made that mason jar? New York Times. 27 April 2012.
While many foodies are seen as frivolous, home canning , some say, can be seen as the smart option for thinking gourmets:
“Home canning improves the flavour of vegetables and fruit. It is an ecological option requiring no refrigeration plus it means that you don’t waste any excess from your garden or allotment.” [50] Rodgers, Kerstin. The Jar Meal: using the American canner and pickling lime powder. Blog posting 6 March 2011. Accessed March 2015.
Desire for creativity
The refrain of government agents is “don’t get creative” with your home canning, but it’s futile: throughout history preserves have always been used as a creative outlet, and you aren’t going to change that.
“Like so many other art forms preserving in either, salt, sugar or vinegar, was born out of necessity but was then transformed by imagination into a means of self expression and pride for housewives who had few other creative outlets. Preserving the harvest became an often competitive outlet for wives as they vied against each other in local fairs showing others their prowess in the kitchen.” [51] Brown, Marion. Pickles and Preserves. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. 2002. Foreword.
Telling canners not to be creative might have been effective decades ago, but it’s not going to work now. It’s perhaps better to be honest about when they can tweak, what, and how. Ball is starting to do that a bit now finally, as of their 2015 Blue Book.
The issue is, that today’s canners want to be creative, but there are strict safety rules that must be followed. The safety rules are based on science, and the science won’t change regardless of anyone’s opinion. The people issue occurs when they run smack into old school people who are used to telling people to just do as they are told and don’t ask any questions. (To be fair, these people say in their own defence, “if you give people an inch, they will take a yard”, so they didn’t even want to tell people how to safely take an inch.) What happens instead though, is they ignore everything from that otherwise safe recipe source, and go off on the Internet looking for something that better suits their inclination.
Here’s a collection of safe tweaks collected from the various places where home canning authorities have mentioned them.
Home canning for gifts
Home canned items make for unique, inexpensive gifts:
“Canned foods make great gifts. The work and care that went into a homemade jam or homemade pickles is worth much more than the food itself.” [52] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
At Christmas, a home canner with a full pantry will have access to some of the most desirable gifts going that year:
“Come Christmas time, home canners have the upper hand in the gift giving department, as a well-stocked pantry of jams, jellies & pickles ensures you have a solid back-up plan to cover everyone on the list.” [53] Wimbursh-Bourque, Aimee. 9 Good Reasons to Can Your Own Food. Simple Bites Blog. 10 September 2010. Accessed March 2015.
It’s of course extra, extra important to be following tested recipes from trusted sources when giving home canned items as gifts.
Time saving
Home canning is also a huge time saver. If you double-stack a 23 quart Presto canner with 18 ½ litre (US pint) jars of carrots, you have just prepared one veg for 18 meals for 2 people in one fell swoop. Do a batch of green beans the next day, and there’s two veg down and ready to go.
“The upfront work of canning food is easily paid back with easy-to-prepare meals. According to Wendi Clark, a great meal of home-canned foods can come together quickly. ‘With a growing and busy family, my pantry provides our ‘fast food,’ she says.’ ” [54] Alterman, Tabitha. Home Canning: Putting Food By the Old-Fashioned Way. Mother Earth News. June / July 2012. Accessed March 2015.
A huge advantage of home canned food over frozen is that no long advance notice time is needed to thaw the food:
“Plus canned don’t need extra preparation, as the food is always ready to be eaten the moment you open the can.” [55] Heller, Max (2014-10-29). Canning and Preserving: Learn How to Can and Preserve Vegetables, Fruits, Meats and Jams for Beginners (Kindle Locations 102-103). Kindle Edition.
Home canned ground beef is ready to open, drain and toss into a pasta sauce, casserole, or tacos within 60 seconds, because it’s also already fully cooked. Contrast that with the time required when the same ground beef is sitting in the freezer, and must be thawed, then cooked.
The nostalgia of home canning
A case study done for the Ball company found,
“Many people have grown up with a parent or grandparent who canned and have deep emotional attachments to the process.” [56] Ball FreshTECH Automatic Home Canning System. Making Canning Mainstream. Case Study by Altitude Inc Consulting. Somerville, Massachusetts. Accessed March 2015.
Many people have images, or photos, of their grandmothers or great-grandmother’s pantries:
“Food-filled jars line the walls of Jenica Cory’s pantry, much like they did at her grandmother’s house.” [57] Stephens, Dave. Home canning makes comeback. South Bend, Indiana: South Bend Tribune. 22 August 2011. Accessed March 2015.
Some people feel a sense of connection back with their ancestors:
“Some feel canning is a powerful connection to the past – to culture, family and heritage, and they are absolutely right.” [58] Wimbursh-Bourque, Aimee. 9 Good Reasons to Can Your Own Food. Simple Bites Blog. 10 September 2010. Accessed March 2015.
Some like a sense of connection to a time that was simpler:
“Many people enjoy canning because it reminds them of a simpler time. Perhaps it was an activity that their mother or grandmother used to do.” [59] Ewald, Jonathan. What is canning and what are the benefits? 7 August 2014. Accessed March 2015.
Today’s canners want to know the “whys”
Canners these days just won’t trust what they don’t understand.
They want to know the why, and if they’re not told, they will try to guess, and work on the basis of that guess, even though they are often wrong in their guess.
The problem with the official approach up to know is that it blends together quality issues and safety issues in the canning directions, without telling people which is which. People are directed to peel carrots before pressure canning, with no reason given as to why, so some people might decide that it was simply an older taste preference and as such, to do the modern, healthier thing of leaving the peel on, as that is where so much of the nutrition is. Well, it actually is a safety issue — to get the bacterial count down. But the directions don’t let on that the peeling is actually a really important step in starting to reduce the bacterial load going into the jars.
Today’s canners want weight equivalents to work with
Today’s canners are more likely to own a set of inexpensive kitchen scales, and aren’t afraid to use them. Tired of agonizing over imprecise measurements such as what exactly a quart of chopped measures out to be, they want to have the choice of weight equivalents to work with.
References
Jeanne Marie Adcock
It’s not only wanting to home can. It’s becoming a necessity for a lot of people just to be able to eat and in order to save money at the grocery store with high inflation prices.
There needs to be more educational material out there and more explanations about why exactly you do things a certain way. Every state, every county needs to have an extension office to teach people. Our tax dollars should pay for that. I’ve been told the USDA doesn’t test recipes anymore. If this is true, it just seems that the USDA doesn’t want the home canner to succeed.
You’ve got YouTubers doing canning videos who are not following the USDA recommended processes and boast that they have been doing it their way for years and not gotten sick. Examples: Canning potatoes in a jar without water. Canning beans that haven’t been soaked first. Dry canning in their ovens. People are doing this stuff everyday.
I’ve read every book and I follow every safe tested recipe. But some of the approved canning recipes are just out of date and old-fashioned. People don’t eat the same way they did back then.