I Can,you Can...we all Can!

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Each year I pull out the canning supplies and books to begin the process of taking fruit and veggies from the garden to the root cellar. Looking over our library of canning and freezing books I found some old fashioned curiosities.

I learned that avocados can be pureed and frozen for later use. The book recommends they be frozen unsweetened for salads and sweetened for ice cream and milk shakes. Avocado ice cream anyone?

I am directed to use the same procedures for freezing boysenberries, dewberries, loganberries, and youngberries. My only problem is that I have never heard of most of these.

The 1965 USDA Home Freezing Bulletin shows pictures of a diligent homemaker packing green beans in plastic bags and tying them shut with string. This makes me appreciate my zipper closing plastic bags, twist ties and vacuum sealer.

The 65’ USDA Canning Bulletin shows techniques for home canning in tin cans as well as glass jars. This process required a contraption called a can sealer. By 1994, according to the Ball Blue Book “Tin containers, of course, are still used…but almost entirely on a commercial basis. The processes in this book are for glass jars only and DO NOT APPLY TO TIN CANS.”

Reading on I discover recipes for prickly pear, kumquat and green grape marmalade (clear jelly with bits of fruit or peel suspended). There are recipes for Quince and Bar-le-Duc or currant preserves (fruit preserved with sugar). How about some gooseberry conserve (jam-like, usually containing nuts and raisins)? And we cannot forget muscadine or scuppernong jam (crushed fruit and sugar).

Then there are the recipes that leave me wondering about their final disposition. Sure I can make Victoria or Peruvian Sauce but then how is it used in a meal? What do I put it with, over, under, or beside?

The Ball Blue Book of 1969 is printed in color and cost 35 cents. Step-by-step instructions are illustrated by a Betty Crocker type woman, brown hair permed and swept up, dress and apron pressed and spotless around her trim waist.

By 1994 this same body has layer, blond shoulder-length hair, painted nails, and turtle neck, sans apron to exemplify the modern homemaker. The modern book references new recipes for taco sauce, zesty salsa, and lite jams using artificial sweeteners. Use of the microwave for jellies and a food processor to chop ingredients are time saving conveniences.

Still in 1994 I do not find “visit our web site at…” Ah, the times are changing.

Speaking of quaint here is the final recipe from the 69’ Blue Book:

How to Preserve a Husband

Be careful in your selection.
Do not choose too young.

When selected, give your entire thoughts to preparation for domestic use. Some wives insist upon keeping them in a pickle, others are constantly getting them into hot water. This may make them sour, hard, and sometimes bitter: even poor varieties may be made sweet, tender and good by garnishing them with patience, well sweetened with love and seasoned with kisses. Wrap them in a mantle of charity. Keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion and serve with peaches and cream. Thus prepared, they will keep for years.

As soon as I get my hair done and press my apron, it’s back to domestic devotion here in the Brady kitchen.

Heritage Trails Park District- Your Auglaize County Parks
Allison Brady, Executive Director
Heritage Trails Park District
PO Box 63 St. Marys, OH 45885
419.202.6053 cell
abrady@watchtv.net
Web site: htparks.org