The Inevitable Canning Backlash
Anything seen as trendy in the food world gets a take-down sooner or later, so I shouldn't have been surprised to see this Slate article conclude that home canning has become the "pretty" and "modish" and "self-congratulatory" domain of urban kitchen warriors and boasting bloggers.
Now, the author here is a generally fabulous food writer. I normally nod my head at her sharp and astute articles, but this one had me shaking it the other way. I can't argue with the assertion that buying a slew of new canning equipment and jamming up a ribbon-wrapped collection of $5/lb heirloom tomatoes isn't particularly frugal. The process does pencil out nicely, though, if you re-use those cans year after year, and choose tomatoes from the cheapie seconds bins, or grab 20 pounds of inexpensive fruit from the U-Pick, or if you do belong to that not-particularly-endangered category of zealous gardeners with too many cucumbers. Even better? The home-canned and pickled foods I've sampled generally taste great, which alone seems a good enough reason to make them. Even better than that? I know exactly what's gone into the cans. I don't wind up grabbing a jar off the shelf that's loaded with sweeteners, dyes, preservatives, and additives that I'd need a chemistry degree to decode. If that's considered touting an environmental virtue, I'm OK with that.
I also plead guilty to the charge of not "producing serious food for the future," but that never struck me as the purpose of my own canning. We no longer need to rely on home canning to keep our families fed through the winter (though my Midwestern cousins still do a good job at that, and I should take lessons from them). My own relatively small investment of labor last summer meant that my family feasted on wonderful jam from the pantry year-round, enough to carry us through to the next berry season. That was enough of a reward for me to plan on returning to my collection of quilted jelly jars as soon as cheap flats of strawberries hit the farmers market. Call me overwrought. Call me cute. Or, spend some time with the Ball Blue Book of Preserving. Sure, as the article decried, there are plenty of "sassily titled" new canning books on the market. Some of them are quite good, too. But the Ball book is a classic that's been around for more than 100 years -- that should tell us something. Rather than dismiss its topic as "ridiculously trendy," maybe we could think of it instead as a lasting trend.
-- Rebekah Denn
HopeSew on March 16, 2010 at 07:37 AM
The author seemed more like she was annoyed by the people who put canning on a pedestal and use it as a stick with which to beat "mere mortals" into submission to the eco-gods. I didn't get the feeling that she was down on canning itself. The tone of the article felt like, "Canning is fine and tasty too, but don't distort it into the silver bullet that will save the world and then pat yourself on the back for being part of the 'in' crowd." It's a snobbish attitude, and I can see why the author would be annoyed by it.
Rebekah Denn on March 16, 2010 at 08:56 AM
Yes, I see what you mean. I think what irked me was that the assumption seemed to be that most people canning these days are doing it for pretentious snob value or an inflated sense of what it will accomplish. The author does seem to be saying "it's fine to do it, but take it for what it is..." but that's what I already see most people doing.
HopeSew on March 17, 2010 at 04:37 AM
I bet 95% of canners do it quietly and for their own enjoyment, just as you've seen yourself. :) It's just that other, loud 5% causing a fuss. Among them are the ones who try to commandeer various activities, and they set themselves up as targets for criticism.
Anyway, I hope to see some of your canning fun here when the time comes.
Pawn on March 17, 2010 at 06:24 AM
Botulism awaits the Volvo crowd.
Wally Ballou on March 17, 2010 at 06:26 AM
Hi - I am one of the least trendy people you could ever meet, and I love canning. I am a long-time gardener (with too many tomatoes) and a newish canner, and I was shocked and somewhat dismayed to discover last year that canning had gone trendy. it sure wasn't when my Dad was doing it. Well, when it is hopelessly declasse', I will still be canning.
"We eat what we can, and what we can't - we can" - one of the Old Man's favorite aphorisms.
BillMax on March 17, 2010 at 06:34 AM
I'm in my second marriage and in October 2002 we bought a house that had the remains of a nice garden; tomatoes rotting on the vine, etc. My wife had never had a vegetable garden and wanted one, so we planted that spring and she learned to can pickles and tomatoes. In the beginning I helped with the canning, but now she's retired and does it all herself. I'm the stoop labor who tills, lays out the garden, helps with the planting, tills for cultivation and helps with the harvesting. She cans tomatoes, salsa, cucumber and banana pepper pickles, blackberry jam, grape jelly and applesauce. All from the garden and one apple tree. She also buys strawberries and makes strawberry jam. We give away salsa, pickles, jams and jellies and consume the rest ourselves. I don't know if we save any money because we haven't counted the cost, but I know my salsa consumption would be greatly reduced if I was paying retail for it. She does it because she loves it. I do it because she loves it.
LarryD on March 17, 2010 at 06:43 AM
Re: the people who get self-righteous about canning:
Buy local, act evil
"But new research by Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong at the University of Toronto levels an even graver charge: that virtuous shopping can actually lead to immoral behavior. In their study (described in a paper now in press at Psychological Science), subjects who made simulated eco-friendly purchases ended up less likely to exhibit altruism in a laboratory game and more likely to cheat and steal."
Matthew 6:1-4
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Paul Ehrlich on March 17, 2010 at 06:46 AM
Grow your own and can it, because you will soon be unable to afford to buy food.
Doug Santo on March 17, 2010 at 06:55 AM
Canning is about the least trendy thing I can imagine. The original reason for canning was to preserve harvest abundance for lean months. Canning was an important tool for folks who lived in remote areas and lived off food grown on their farms. Most people can for different reasons today. I enjoy it. I like to give my canned products as gifts to friends and family.
The trendy wave will pass. Canning equipment will collect dust in some cupboard and eventually get sold for a few dollars at a garage sale. Canning will once again be one of the least trendy things imaginable.
Doug Santo
Pasadena, CA
LJM on March 17, 2010 at 07:19 AM
Canning makes sense if you grow your own or have access to an abundance of inexpensive produce. I come from a proud heritage of canning and love the flavor of home canned stuff. I rarely do it myself any more. I know people who have always canned regardless of the cost. They like to do it. Consider it a ritual of fall. Good for them. If you can spare a couple of weeks of hard labor you could put up quite a haul for your food storage.
anon on March 17, 2010 at 07:30 AM
Do you think she will pick on home bakers next?
The "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes" types are buying lots of
yeast in our local store. Gasp. So now baking bread
at home is out.
"What a maroon" - B. Bunny
RT on March 17, 2010 at 07:55 AM
Many years ago I asked my grandmother "Why do you call it canning when you are using jars and not metal cans? Shouldn't you call it 'jarring' instead?"
There are still jars of various vegitables and jellies in the basement, some of them approching 50 yrs old. And no, I do not plan on trying any of them. We also have an unopened box of C Rations from WW2 and I'm not eating that either.
NC Mountain Girl on March 17, 2010 at 08:08 AM
I think the target was the pretentious 'born again' canners who wear their new found food religion on their sleeves rather than those who have been virtuously-and quietly- putting up their own gardens for years now.
comatus on March 17, 2010 at 08:24 AM
I'm with you, Pawn. I've also been called out at odd hours, in my Studebaker, to help "friends" minister to wounded Volvos (and Benzes). Had to put one down, once. LarryD, I respect your scholarship. What's Bible study for, if not to rebuke a Pharisee? But mind you don't become one--it is a fine line, I know.
The fact that this article is in [on?] Slate is what really pops the dent out of the lid. Reminds me of when The New Yorker reverentially meditated on how hard it is to grow arugula. Well I planted a rocket patch, and it winters over, in northern Ohio. Silly New Yorker.
The tragically hip giveth, and taketh away. Now that "it's over," we can look forward to enhancing our inventories at those garage sales. In the long run, that's what the silly rich are there for.
memomachine on March 17, 2010 at 08:24 AM
Hmmm.
@ RT
Believe it or not but there are collectors who will buy that box of C-Rations. Especially the **boxes**.
As someone who spent time in the Marines eating C-Rations, when I couldn't avoid it, I would have no problem in continuing to avoid them. :)
But there are collectors for those thing. Boxes, cans, the small packages of condiments included, etc etc etc. Just an fyi.
And I commend your sanity in not opening 50 year old jars of produce. Particularly not indoors.
Bryan on March 17, 2010 at 12:27 PM
My next-door neighbor cans meat. She is my hero. Some of us will fare better than others, come hard times.
jaed on March 17, 2010 at 06:20 PM
I have a chest freezer, and freeze roasted tomatoes, peppers, berries, and various other things, most of which I grow myself. But I don't can.
So am I disgustingly trendy, quietly virtuous, an eco-criminal (freezers do use electricity), or simply ahead of my time?
Maybe in a year I'll be the latest tired trend.
Andrea on March 22, 2010 at 06:28 AM
I love making fruit jams & butters. They're delicious in plain yogurt. But what prevents me from canning beyond simple jams is concern for nutrients. After the peeling, the blanching, the pressure processing, and boiling the opened contents before eating*, what's left of any nutritional value? You're better off freezing or buying fresh from the supermarket.
*"To further reduce the risk of botulism, home canned low-acid and tomato foods should be boiled even if you detect no signs of spoilage. Boil foods for 10 minutes at altitudes below 1,000 feet. Add an additional minute of boiling time for each additional 1,000 feet elevation..." From Univ. of Minnesota Extension web site -- http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/nutrition/components/dj0516section1.html