Increased food concerns cause growth in canning

By CATHY DYSON

When Krista Ehlert started canning last year, she wondered if anyone else spent time cleaning, snapping and stuffing green beans into jars.

"I started to think I was the only person who still did it," said Ehlert, a 41-year-old defense contractor at Quantico Marine Corps Base and Orange County resident.

Instead of being the last canner on earth, Ehlert may be the new face of it.

Across the nation, consumers concerned about how their food is grown and processed are taking jars and lids into their own hands.

Like Ehlert, they don't have the time to grow a garden themselves.

They pick peaches at local orchards or buy boxes of canning tomatoes at farmers markets.

Instead of filling pantries with food to get through the winter as their grandmothers did, they preserve pickles and pasta sauce because they want to capture the flavor of locally grown food and limit the amount of sugar and salt added to it.

"That's the new consumer we're seeing," said Brenda Schmidt, a manager at Jarden Home Brands in Muncie, Ind., a company that sells canning products. "It's all about lifestyle choices, and canning is more relevant than ever before."

'AN INCREASE IN INTEREST'

Nationwide, sales of canning products are up almost 10 percent from last year, Schmidt said. This summer is the fourth year in a row the industry has had double-digit growth, she added.

The same trend is taking place in the Fredericksburg region.

The TrueValue hardware store at Lake of the Woods sells canning products year-round and has several employees who can answer questions, said Dan Kalista, manager.

Kim Elkins in the Virginia Cooperative Extension's Spotsylvania County office had so many queries about canning, she scheduled a two-part class earlier this month.

She limited participation to 10 students, who made strawberry-kiwi jam and salsa one day, and preserved green beans the next.

"There's definitely an increase in interest," she said.

When Ehlert started researching online, she was surprised to find blogs about canning. She read about people making jams and jellies in New York City apartments so small, residents had to stash canning supplies under the couch.

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It's OK to take up the practice of preserving foods the way your grandmother did, but you might not want to use her recipes

"The rules have changed," said Kim Elkins in the Virginia Cooperative Extension's Spotsylvania County office. "We've learned a lot more about microbiology since then."

At issue is the type of food and how it's processed. Fruits, jams and salsas can be processed in boiling water, as well as vegetables that are pickled or have added acid. The pickling helps preserve them.

All other vegetables need to be processed in pressure canners, appliances filled with water and heated to temperatures upward of 240 degrees Fahrenheit. That's the temperature needed to kill the bacteria that causes botulism, or food poisoning.

More information about canning is available from the National Center for Home Food Preservation at uga.edu/nchfp or the Virginia Virginia Cooperative Extension Service at ext.vt.edu. County Extension agents can be reached at:

CAROLINE: 804/633-6550 KING GEORGE: 775-3062 FREDERICKSBURG and SPOTSYLVANIA: 507-7570 STAFFORD: 658-8000 WESTMORELAND: 804/493-8924

CORN: Krista Ehlert buys fresh corn on the cob and removes husks and silk. She blanches the ears for a few minutes then puts them in ice water to cool. She wraps them individually in plastic wrap and puts them in freezer bags. When she takes them out to cook, they're as good as when fresh-picked, she said.

HERBS: Diane Kuechler has developed a simple method for drying herbs. She snips away the stalks and wraps the herbs in plastic netting. She stores them in the refrigerator a few weeks until they dry, then puts them in jars. The method retains the plants' vibrant colors, and the flavor lasts about a year. TOMATOES: When recipes call for removing the skins, Ehlert cuts out the cores and makes an "X" mark at the bottom of the tomato with her knife. Then, she blanches the tomatoes and cools them in ice water, which causes the skins to slide right off, she said. SUBSTITUTE: The benefit of canning is being able to come up with your own combinations. When Mary Ann Messing lived in Miami, mangoes were so abundant, she made a variety of chutneys and sauces. Now that she lives in Fawn Lake, she uses the same favorite recipes with peaches instead.

Date published: 8/22/2010

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