CHAPTER XXX 



Fruits and Vegetables for Winter 



GaDning Fruits and Vegetables — Methods of Canning — Scalding, 

 Blanching and Cold-Dipping — Sterilization — Equipment — ^Jars, 

 Tin Cans and Rubbers — Sirups — Flat Sour — Treatment After 

 Canning — Preservative Powder — Short Instructions for Canning 

 Vegetables and Fruit — Recipes — Time Table for Scalding, 

 Blanching and Sterilizing Vegetables and Fruits 



THE products of our own garden always taste better than fruit which 

 has been prepared in the commercial establishments. We have 

 grown the material; it is ours and we like it. 



Canning Fruits and Vegetables 



Science always tells us why we do a thing, and it is only by a knowledge 

 of why we do things that we get so that we can apply the art of doing 

 one thing to the art of doing another. As early as the seventeenth century, 

 persons began to know that it was very minute plants and animals which 

 caused the spoiling of fruits. These organisms induce fermentation and 

 putrefaction, and are of immense importance. They are of three groups: 

 First, molds, which appear as a white, green or black furry growth; they 

 are often present on the vegetables at the time we can them. Secondly, 

 we have the yeasts, which are familiar to every housewife who makes 

 bread. These Kttle "plants" are invisible to the naked eye and seem to 

 like to get into all substances which contain sugar. They are not usually 

 there very long before they cause the substances to become sour, the 

 next stage being the production of alcohol. The air is full of yeast, and 

 it is almost always found on ripe fruit. The third class consists of bacteria. 

 When we reahze that sometimes fifteen thousand of these pesky little 

 things can be placed end to end in an inch, we wonder how they can do 

 so much damage, but they are the hardest foes of canning we have to 

 fight. 



Every utensil which the housekeeper uses, and every vegetable and 

 all the sugar and the water, contain some form of mold, yeast or bacteria. 

 Our problem then is to take all possible care that each of our three enemies 

 is conquered. 



For absolute cleanliness the soil must be carefully washed from the 

 fruit; over-ripe fruit should never be used; bruised and cracked fruit 

 should be avoided, for it is in the bruises and cracks that the yeast and molds 

 are very prevalent. All jars and containers must be thoroughly scalded 

 with boiling water. 



The discussion of canning procedure set forth in these pages relates 

 almost entirely to the one-period so-called cold-pack method and, together 

 with the recipes, is based largely upon descriptions and directions contained 

 in Farmers' Bulletin 839 and Form NR-24 of the Co-operative Extension Work 

 in Agriculture and Home Economics (O. H. Benson, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C), and the Cornell Reading Course for the 

 Farm Home (Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.) By the one-period 



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