This is an excerpt from CHAPTER XXVI entitled HOME COLD
-PACK CANNING from Bolton Hall's Three Acres and Liberty
All this is so simple and the directions so easily followed that the
average 12-year-old may successfully can vegetables or fruits. The
steps and the precautions are:
1. Select sound vegetables and fruits. (If possible can them the
same day they are picked.) Wash, clean, and prepare them.
2. Have ready, on the stove, a can or pail of boiling water.
3. Place the vegetables or fruits in cheesecloth, or in some other
porous receptacle--a wire basket is excellent--for dipping and
blanching them in the boiling water.
4. Put them whole into the boiling water. The Commission gives a
time-table for blanching. After the water begins to boil, begin to
count the blanching time; this varies from one to twenty minutes,
according to the vegetable or fruit.
5. When the blanching is complete, remove the vegetables or fruits
from the boiling water and plunge them a number of times into cold
water, to harden the pulp and check the flow of coloring matter. Do
not leave them in cold water.
6. The containers must be thoroughly clean. It is not necessary to
sterilize them in steam or boiling water before filling them, as in
the cold-pack process both the insides of containers and the
contents are sterilized. The jars should be heated before being
filled, in order to avoid breakage.
7. Pack the product into the containers, leaving about a quarter of
an inch of space at the top.
8. With vegetables add one level teaspoonful of salt to each quart
container and fill with boiling water. With fruits use syrups.
9. With glass jars always use a good rubber. Test the rubber by
stretching or turning inside out. Fit on the rubber and put the lid
in place. If the container has a screw top do not screw up as hard
as possible, but use only the thumb and little finger in tightening
it. This makes it possible for the steam to escape and prevents
breakage. If a glass top jar is used, snap the top bail only,
leaving the lower bail loose during sterilization. Tin cans should
be completely sealed.
10. Place the filled and capped containers on the rack in the
sterilizer. If the homemade or commercial hot-water bath outfit is
used, enough water should be in the boiler to come at least one inch
above the tops of the containers, and the water, in boiling out,
should never be allowed to drop to the level of these tops. Begin to
count processing time when the water begins to boil.
At the end of the sterilizing period remove the containers from the
sterilizer. Fasten covers on tightly at once, turn the containers
upside down to test for leakage, leave in this position until cold,
and then store in a cool, dry place. Be sure that no draft is
allowed to blow on glass jars, as it may cause breakage.
11. If jars are to be stored where there is strong light, wrap them
in paper, preferably brown, as light will fade the color of products
canned in glass jars, and sometimes deteriorate the food value.
That's the whole trick.
ARC Identifier: 196412 Title: Rehabilitation client's son,
Kaufman Co., Texas. Photographed by Rothstein., ca. 1942
Franklin D.Roosevelt Library (NLFDR), 4079 Albany Post
Road, Hyde Park,NY. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Library Digital Archives.
More about Fruit Preservation.
The kind of season we have would change the date of planting. In raising vegetables, as in everything else, one should use one's common (or garden variety of) sense. A good rule is to wait until the ground has warmed up a bit. Never try to work in soil wet enough to be sticky, or muddy; wait until it dries enough to crumble readily. Gardening is not a rule of thumb business. Each gardener must bring his plants up in his own way in the light of his own experience and in accordance with the conditions of his own garden. A garden lover who has a bit of land will speedily learn if his eyes and his mind, as well as his hands, are always busy, no matter how meager his knowledge at the beginning.
