THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508180149
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANELLE LA BOUVE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 177 lines
``WHEN I LEFT home at 18, I didn't think I'd ever want to can anything again,'' said Louise Gay, 79.
Preserving summer vegetables and fruits the old-fashioned way is hard work. But it has become a labor of love for Gay and many other Chesapeake homemakers who believe there's no better way to enjoy the taste of home-grown produce year round.
``My husband was an engineer in the Navy, but he likes to farm,'' Gay said. ``Since this is his hobby, I go along with it. He brings it in from the garden, and I can it. You can take the man off the farm, but you can't take the farmer out of the man.''
This summer Gay has canned 35 quarts of snap beans and about 50 quarts of tomatoes.
``The tomatoes always come in handy for chili, soups, stews and spaghetti,'' she said.
Gay says it takes a half day to can 25 jars of tomatoes.
``Even with air conditioning and a fan it still gets hot,'' Gay said. ``I manage to get a rest period after lunch, and that really helps.''
In the spring, her husband, William, put out 400 tomato plants. Now they're reaping the benefits.
``They're nice ones,'' she said. ``They are all staked and off the ground in cages.
``The Progressive Farmer says pick when they have a heavy blush, the flavor is better if you pick with heavy blush than if you let them ripen fully. My husband relies on that magazine.''
Because there has been so little rain, the Gays harvested only enough corn from their acre field to fill about 40 freezer bags.
``The coons were even frustrated,'' she said. ``They broke down whole stalks trying to get the corn.''
On their four-acre pick-it-yourself farm, non-farmers can gather produce for their own canning.
William Gay grows string beans, butter beans, peas, peppers, cucumbers and red onions.
His wife canned 30 jars of pickles of various varieties - sweet, beet and bread-and-butter. She has managed also to squirrel away strawberry and peach preserves.
``The plum tree is loaded,'' she said. ``The little dwarf peach trees produce just enough for us.''
Alberta Wood recalls watching her mother can when she was just a little girl.
``My mother canned the long way,'' Wood recalled. ``She cooked her beans, put them in jars, set the jars in hot water and cooked them about four hours.
``My husband loves to garden, and he puts plenty out there for us and everybody else,'' said Wood, who has been canning for about 37 years. ``We take good care of our widows around here.''
It takes too long to can corn, in Wood's opinion. But she has canned 75 quarts of snap beans and 52 quart jars and nine pint jars of tomatoes.
``I enjoy doing it,'' Wood said. ``And the food just tastes so much better when you can it. Also the food is here when I need it. I don't have to run to the store. We canned 40 quarts of peaches last year.''
Although she helps, her husband takes responsibility for preserving figs, strawberries and plums.
``Thank goodness for air conditioning,'' Wood said. ``You're really tired when you get through, but it's worth it all in the end.
``We have two daughters and a daughter-in-law to share them with. They all work and don't have time to do this sort of stuff.''
Lucille Peele buys most of the vegetables she cans rather than growing them herself. Recently, she paid $7 for 60 ears of corn.
``I've only canned seven quarts and seven pints of whole-grain kernel corn,'' she said.
``If you watch the sales, sometimes you can buy three cans (of corn) for a $1. It's good corn, but it doesn't have the flavor of what I put up.''
She has also canned 11 pints of tomatoes and 15 quarts of sweet pickles.
``I use them for potato salad or chicken salad. I don't ever buy any pickles,'' she said.
Peele wasn't able to learn the art of canning from her mother, who died when she was 6.
``Daddy was a farmer. I had to learn how to do things right quick,'' said Peele, 83. ``One of our neighbors did a lot of canning. When I was about 12, she helped me a lot.
``It is a lot of work, but I enjoy it in a way. It makes you tired, especially in the hot weather. But when the cold winter comes and you can't get a fresh ear, this tastes mighty good.''
``Canning is really an art,'' said Carol B. Thorpe, home economist for the Chesapeake office of the Virginia Extension Service. ``People enjoy working with food and seeing it jars. It really is beautiful.''
However, first-time canners and even old hands should be exercise caution when preserving foods, she said. They should not assume that freezing methods are adequate for canning.
``The bulk of our canning calls are about green beans and tomatoes,'' Thorpe said. ``People want to can green beans by putting them in a hot water bath so they won't have to process them with a pressure canner.''
But, Thorpe warned, green beans must be processed under pressure.
Once they start producing, tomatoes come in fast and furiously. But in the last couple of years there has been a change in the recommended method for canning tomatoes, Thorpe said.
``Now it is recommended to add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or a half-teaspoon of citric acid to each quart jar,'' she said. ``Tomato varieties over time have become less acidic. So tomatoes may be canned by using a hot water bath, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends the additional acid.''
Special precautions should be taken when canning pickles, too.
``All the recommendations that we have say that the pickles should be processed in a canner,'' she said. ``People who don't process them are taking a chance.''
Processing kills the organisms that cause spoilage and inactivate enzymes, which may affect pickle flavor, color and texture, Thorpe said.
Thorpe said she is often asked what kind of jars are best for home canning.
``People want to use other kinds of jars, like mayonnaise jars, rather than standard canning jars,'' she said. ``That's not recommended.
Jars manufactured especially for home canning should be used because there may be slight differences in the diameter of the mouth of commercial jars or in the width of the sealing surface. Either could prevent the lid from sealing properly. There may also be tiny nicks or scratches, which could cause the jar to break under pressure.
Hugh Mihaloew planned his entire vacation around the Cleveland, Ohio, area blueberry season. He and a friend made the trip during the last week in July.
``We picked about 15 pounds in a half-hour,'' said Mihaloew, a computerized axial tomography technologist at Chesapeake General Hospital. ``They are so big and juicy.''
As soon as he was back home in Great Bridge, he preserved five pints of the large, delicious berries.
``Mom used to put up jellies and jams,'' he said. ``Being away from home, I can just to get that taste again. I really enjoy it.''
According to Thorpe, Mihaloew is one of many local residents who put up their own jams, jellies or preserves.
Some local canners tell her they have been using paraffin on top of their preserves as a seal. They ask if that's OK.
The answer is no.
``It is also recommended that preserves, jams and jellies be processed in a hot water or a boiling bath canner.''
What happens if the jars don't seal?
``If no more than 24 hours has passed since the food was processed, you have three choices,'' Thorpe explained.
You can refrigerate the food immediately and use it within a day or two.
Or you can drain the canned vegetables, transfer the food to freezer containers and freeze it.
Or you can reprocess the food. Here's how.
Remove lids. Empty the vegetables and liquid into a pan and bring to a boil. Then pack the vegetables into clean, hot jars and put on new lids. Process again for the full time, she said.
``The reprocessed food will be overcooked and, therefore, of lower quality,'' Thorpe said.
Food starts to spoil after 24 hours, so it should be discarded after that.
Although she doesn't can foods herself, for 30 plus years Janice Stewart, an administrative secretary at the Virginia Extension Service, has also been fielding calls about home canning.
``We usually give directions for canning over the phone because they want to do it now,'' Stewart said.
Some callers want to omit salt during the canning process. Others report that their jars don't seal. Still others ask about using jars of food they've had on their shelves for two or three years.
``We tell them to plan what they need and will use during one year, then use it,'' Stewart said. ``Canned food won't last forever.'' MEMO: A booklet entitled ``Preserving Foods'' is available at the Chesapeake
Office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. Call 547-6349 to
obtain a copy.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by Steve Earley
On the cover
Alberta Wood pulls a hot jar of tomatoes out of a pressure cooker
in a staff photo by Steve Earley. This season, Wood canned nine pint
jars of tomatoes.[color cover photo]
Louise Gay sorts tomatoes. Some will be canned, some will be sold.
In photo at top of apage, Gary shows off canned beans and peaches.
Louise and Wiliam Gay gather tomatoes from the garden in Western
Branch.
by CNB