CHAPTER XVI
CANNING THE GARDEN SURPLUS FOR
WINTER USE
The fullest measure of benefit from the garden has not been obtained unless one has preserved for future use the more succulent forms of vegetables that are not susceptible to preservation through winter in the usual form of cold storage.
Those early vegetables which are so keen an incentive to the planting of a garden—young beets, spinach greens, string beans, limas, peas, tomatoes and the like must be preserved in a cooked form, hermetically sealed from the air to preserve them from spoiling. This the commercial canners have done for years and we have been content to let them do this work for us at a price that has added materially to the high cost of living, while our own garden product, often of a far better quality, has gone to waste. Market gardeners who supply the canneries grow vegetables with a keen eye to their productiveness. If one vegetable will produce a half or a third more to an acre than another variety somewhat better, it is only human to grow that one, but the private garden is not, as a rule, grown with a sole idea of profit; it is quality and the enjoyment of the product that is looked for and only those vegetables that will produce a high grade product will be grown.
The home canning of vegetables has been neglected owing to the uncertainty of results. Occasionally one found a housekeeper who could can corn successfully, but the results usually were unsatisfactory, all this, however, is changed since the government experts of the Agricultural Department have, by careful experiments along the lines of all sorts of vegetable products, worked out canning schedules that only require careful following to insure success.
The government bulletins give explicit instructions as to necessary equipment, method of handling each separate vegetable and try, in all possible ways, to insure success for the worker.
At first glance the amount of equipment seems burdensome and some of the requirements unnecessary, but I have found that it is not safe to slight any one of them, but that there are short cuts in the work that materially lessen the labor. It will not always be convenient to supply oneself with a canning outfit involving much expense; especially will this be the case in the small family where only a moderate amount of canning is to be done, though the regular canning outfits greatly simplify and ease up the work. A home-made outfit will, however, take care of all the surplus from the small home garden, especially where there are but two or three cans to be handled at one time. There are always vegetables that mature their fruits sparingly—too many for immediate use, but not enough to sell. However, in order that the vines or plants should continue to bear heavily, all such products as string and lima beans, tomatoes, green corn and the like should be gathered as each reaches its most perfect stage. This often involves some waste unless it can be utilized in some way and here is where the canning is effective, as the continual canning of only one or two cans at a time results in the course of a summer in a well-filled cupboard that will insure one against any serious food shortage that may arise during the winter.
There are five types of canning outfits: Homemade outfits, constructed of such utensils as wash boilers, tin pails, milk cans, metal wash tubs and lard pails. The lard pails are especially usable and cream pails are excellent where only a few cans are to be processed at once; even a teakettle can be made to do duty where only one or two pint cans are to be cooked. Any metal vessel that will allow the water to come at least an inch above the tops of the cans will do.
Hot-Water-Bath Commercial Outfits are constructed usually for outdoor work, with a sterilizing vat, lifting-trays, firebox, and smokepipe, combined in one piece. They are light and convenient. They may be moved about as desired, even carried to the orchard or garden where apples and corn are to be canned in quantity, but are more adapted to clubs and neighborhood cooperative work than to the needs of a small family.