The Wartime Pantry
During the two world wars, despite the increased availability of canned goods, American women were called upon to put up their own food as part of their patriotic duty. Available tin was used for some commercial canning but most tin was used in the war effort. By this time, hot pack canning was considered the most reliable and, with “two hours from garden to can,” the rule to follow. Around World War I, canning clubs were encouraged and fostered by such groups as the Deparment of Home Economics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Farm women and their teenage children were also encouraged to start canning businesses from their farm homes.
A 1942 article detailed the effort: “This year, American homemakers are canning at home as a patriotic duty, for it is especially important that no food be allowed to go to waste during the summer and fall . . . From the standpoints of family health and economy, the canning of vegetables from Victory Gardens, and homegrown or locally-gathered wild fruits, and also reasonably priced fresh products on the market is one of the homemaker’s important contributions to the wartime nutrition program.”
Courtesy WHYY
Back to Basics
Back in January PTF kicked off the New Year with the 100 Victory Garden -100 Foot Diet Challenge Are you ready for another?
Across the nation, folks are down on their knees, hands dirty, seeds and trowel clench firming in hand determine to grow their own food Though some crops may fail miserably others crops may step in and take up the slack. With hard work, effort and patience this hearty lot of homegrown soildiers will be blessed up to their eye balls in produce.
So now onto the next phase of the challenge, extending your garden’s bounty by preserving the harvest.
Preservation Methods
Canning
Freezing
Drying
Fermenting
Storage
Stockpiling your pantry
Root cellar
Share
Sharing your bounty – trade, barter, exchange with your neighbors.
Tally Ho
Keep track of your preservation and harvest efforts. Tally up how much you’ve harvested and preserved during the course of the growing season. Recording keep is essential if you want to know how well your growing efforts were for the year.
Start by keeping a daily journal with records on how much eggs, produce were harvested, what you preserved that day and even jot down favorite recipes.
:: Resources ::
Nation Center for Food Preservation
Food Preservation Methods
Preserving your harvest with turn-of-the-century methods
Food Storage FAQ
:: Books & Supplies ::
Ball Home Canning Basics Kit NEW ITEM!
Hanging Food Dryer NEW ITEM!
Food Preservation Helpers
Food Preservation Books
:: Participating ::
If you like to take part in this challenge, post in comment box below. Participating on the internet? Feel free to use the ‘B2B’ icon if you are a taking part (remember to “save as” to not use our bandwidth ) and link to this challenge here
By being a HARVEST KEEPER you are
- Providing nutrious food for your family
- Ensuring food security
- Improving quality of life
- Saving money
- Reducing food miles, fuel & energy dependence
- Reducing excessive packaging and effects of climate change
Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
The Quince’s are in!
Namaste
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I live not too far from your homestead, and I have been wanting to learn how to do canning! Would you be interested in having some extra hands for a canning session?
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I’m in!
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We are in!
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Oh goodie! Count us in!
~Smith Family in Oklahoma
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Inspired by PTF, we began weighing our produce in April. So far, it is just eggs, goats milk, and salad greens from the greenhouse, but I am looking forward to seeing how much we’ve produced by the end of the year!
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We were planning on buying a pressure canner this year in order to preserve our harvest. We already have a dehydrator.
Nothing much to harvest yet, though the peas should be ready in about a week!
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I’m in! I have to do something with all this squash after all! I’ve already started giving away the jumbo organically grown squash from my 200 sqft!
BTW anyone know if its possible to can squash soup? Probably need I pressure cooker I would think..
namaste!
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Does anyone have a favorite kitchen scale to recommend? We have wanted to purchase one for quite some time – I think this is the year to do that. We are harvesting piles of salad greens, snap peas, spinach, green onions and now strawberries! I want to keep a good record of our total harvest.
~mary in OK
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My garden is about over, Lettuce is about gone & some left for seed. Eating beets,New Zealand spinach,green beans,chard,kohlrabi & several kinds of tomatoes & saving seeds. Just my sweet corn left & it is forming ears. I did plant late some Amish cants where the falling Mangos can’t break the plants. I have already dried parsley & basil & lemongrass. Frugal in Mexico
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We only have a small container garden this year to compliment our small apartment but we are going to weigh it now and see how much we can produce. Depending on how much we grow we may or may not be able to can our own produce but we are going to try with farmer’s market produce so we can learn how to do it.
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Because we still live in a FEMA trailer, we are only able to plant in pots this year… but there will be local people selling produce, and I love to can!
We also have wild sandhill plums to harvest this year (late freezes have wiped them out every year for the last 5!) so I will make jelly, too!
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Count the Lehrman’s in Kansas in! We’re at about 8 lbs of greens so far for this year. The peas, spinach, strawberries, and cabbage should be coming ripe soon though! I know we canned over 100 quarts last year and we expanded the garden for this year. Good luck to everyone and if you’re ever through Lawrence, KS, please stop by!
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I’ve been drying peppers and some of the herbs from the garden for a couple years now.
I seriously want to start canning this year, maybe try some totally homegrown salsa since I am now growing all the ingredients. If you can’t recommend specific canning products can you give us a primer of what to look for
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We’re just getting eggs & salad greens from our plot in the “city” (population 16000), but put our tomato seedlings in the ground yesterday & have the rest of our garden layed out… just ready for our seedlings… we’re hoping for a big year! We’re moving beyond the confines of a smallish container garden & planting right in the ground this year. I want to be teeming in produce & have a bounty to share, trade, eat & can!
Your family is *such* an inspiration! I LOVE that you’re gleaning wisdom from the Victory gardens of WW2, what a different take our grandparents’ generation had… stewardship was a valued & patriotic thing!
We’re leading a “Mother Earth’s Day” service at our local UU this weekend, we’re reading “The Lorax” and are trying to find a way to tie in the Victory gardens… letting the truffula seeds we plant be all of the edible variety, what a way to take responsibility & live gently.
Many thanks for all you do.
Blessings, Kelly in smalltown, USA
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We’re in too…I’m on the lookout for a used scale, for I’d love to know just how much abundance we have here on our “Finca en La Cuidad” in Napa… we’ve been drying and freezing our figs, walnuts and tomatoes…but I do need to start canning. I’ve got about a month to go to harvest my first potato crop, the snap peas are producing daily, and we’ve been eating fresh salad greens daily for the past two months. I’m about ready to plant my tomatoes, peppers, cukes, and various squashes. I’m hoping for a successful harvest of a year’s supply of garlic…and the empty lot two doors down the street is going to be tilled this weekend to begin a neighborhood garden…So much to do, so little time. Onward urban farmers!!
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I’m in! My garden is suffering this year – I quite my job to work full time in a newly established 11 acre organic farm in the middle of Silicon Valley. All efforts are going into that (I come home at the end of the day EXHAUSTED) but the hope is I can learn how to do things better in my own teeny space. I’ll be getting most of my veggies from the farm this year – and want to learn how to do everything. What a year this will be! I keep thinking of how so much knowledge from my great-grandmother’s generation has been lost. And now I get the opportunity to learn it. From scratch. What a gift!
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COunt us in! Our garden is jsut getting going but I have canned 8 jars of homemade strawberry jam which weighed about 9 pounds before beginning the cannign process!
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My small garden might not produce enough to preserve yet, but at least I can try to preserve seeds so that next year I’ll be less dependent on buying transplants in plastic containers.
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My seeds have not even sprouted in the garden yet, but count me in! I am so inspired by your efforts and website. Thanks.
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I’m in. Moving into my urban homestead this weekend, next step victory gardens, and walking backwards towards the future.
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A warm welcome to all HARVEST KEEPERS
Wishing you all a bountiful and productive harvest season. May you be blessed by the fruits of your labor.
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I’m in! I have big plans for cheese making and soda brewing this year too.
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It’s unseasonably cold up here in WI, but count me in.
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Totally in! We are putting in our first in the ground garden this year (last year was was an in the container on the patio in the apartment garden) and I am SOOO ready for salsa made fresh from the garden, and beans for the winter, and pasta sauce, and herbs and, and, and, and… *lol*
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