We were trying to find canning supplies at our friendly neighborhood multinational retailer. I said to Elaine, “Someday we’re going to ask a younger person where the canning supplies are and they’ll have no idea what we’re talking about.”
We gave up looking and asked a store clerk. He gave us a blank look. “You know,” I said, “for fruits and vegetables.”
A pause. “Groceries,” he said, and walked off. He must have thought we were asking where to find canned food. He must have thought we were idiots.
An older store clerk saw us looking puzzled and asked if he could help us. He directed us to the canning section, a couple of aisles away. I told him what I had told Elaine. “I grew up on a farm,” he explained. I told him that we were putting up peaches and pickles. “There’s nothing better,” I said. He agreed.
But there are no farms in our past. We have come to canning on our own. Or on Elaine’s own. I’m a designated helper.
A related post
A mystery of the deep
Monday, August 13, 2018
Who cans?
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comments: 5
Daughter Number Three-Point-One and her significant other are committed canners, picklers, and fermenters, so there is hope for the younger generation. My impression is they are far from alone, too. (This may be a Minnesota thing, I suppose.)
My son and his wife (in Boston) make sauerkraut. They’re way ahead of us in using orange rinds to make tea.
Have you seen the Portlandia skit "We can pickle that" from few years ago?
Maybe canning is big with the organic hipster set? though how they can can in those Tiny Houses...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIaWYYX37kY
P.S. Of course Portlandians would never go to a Big Box Store.
I hadn’t seen it, but I could imagine it. I suppose things can be overdone. But I like the idea of people making their own stuff. (Depression 2.0?) As long as they don’t pickle turntables and pocket notebooks.
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