Soup on a shelf

Whether you are Rapunzel or Mother Hen, home canning can keep you from  the fate of Old Mother Hubbard.

Of course preserving food is as old as mankind, and until refrigeration came along, food was salted and dried and pickled and fermented. It wasn’t til a couple hundred years ago though that canning in glass jars became a homely task.  Mason patented the canning jar in 1858 and by then glistening rows of summers wealth marched into the distance on cellar shelves.  

If there were such a thing as a canning graph, it would show a marked dip in the 1950’s. Refrigeration was the tipping point.  But the Do It Yourself decade of the 70’s caused a rebound and canners never looked back. Instead they seized jars and the contents reflected popular culture.  Salsa anyone? 

Food was canned once upon a time as a survival strategy. It has been in various decades a requirement, a luxury, or a trend.  

A quart of glowing golden peach halves. Ruby jam in stout pints. Slim beans and carrots crisp. 

Peter Piper and his pickled peppers come to mind. And Grammas succulent chicken; soup on a shelf.