Homestead mailing list

[sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>]

bob ford wrote:
> I'm curious too.  I remmeber my granny and my paternal aunts canning lots of 
> stuff, but my memory is faulty and they are all dead.  I thought some on this 
> list said thaty certaon things like meat had to be canned under 
> pressure?.......................
>   
Meats and low-acid items get canned under pressure now, but you are all 
right that it certainly hasn't been so....when I was a kid my uncle 
raised broilers, and if they weren't at a good price when they reached 
broiler weight, the community canned them for church.  So that's about 
19,000 chickens (20,000 as delivered chicks) into glass jars and 
waterbathed on wood stoves, for 3 ½ hours each.  Since I was the 
smallest female about, my hands packed every jar. 

What I have no clue about is how many got pitched to the hogs because 
they didn't smell 'right' when they were opened...some I know for sure 
but the rest I don't know about.  I know, in general, there were a can 
or two of goods a week, sometimes all of something in a year, that had 
to be tossed.  All of that was waterbathed..

Now for the last 20/30 years or so, more folks use pressure canning, and 
indeed, the USDA is adamant about it.  Personally, I got and began using 
a pressure canner when I was first married, and have never looked back.  
And I can't even remember the last time I had a sealing failure or had a 
jar of goods go bad......and the newspapers don't carry many stories 
about a whole family found dead the morning after they ate canned corn 
for supper the night before.

And, although it's different, it's really no harder than waterbathing.  
Rob hit the nail on the head, it's a little harder on a woodstove, but 
you just save out the wood you're going to need, then you have it and 
can keep your fire just right....not that bad to do.  And beats waking 
up dead.

SJ