Happy International Can-It-Forward Day!
Well, technically International Can-It-Forward Day is August 1st, but we're getting started a day early. To celebrate, this week we're bringing to you some books on canning and food preserving from our foodways and cookery collections.
To start, we have the Ball Blue Book of Home Canning, Preserving & Freezing (1949) by the Ball Corporation, the patrons of Can-It-Forward Day and an early creator of mason jars and other home canning supplies.
The book gets started with a vocabulary lesson of jar anatomy, food descriptions, and common hazards in food preserving chemistry:
The next lesson gives more in depth information on molds, yeast, bacteria, and enzymes. We thought the little guys were cute!
Of course, can't make a book about canning and preserving without some product advertisement!
And, lastly, a sample recipe for canning peaches:
Image transcripts are below the cut.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
Image 2: Home Canning Vocabulary for Homemakers
FRUIT JAR is the traditional name for a glass jar made for use in home canning. There are two styles available:
The Mason jar has a screw thread neck and a sloping shoulder. It seals on the top or on a sealing shoulder, depending upon the type of cap used.
The Can or Freez jar is a tapered, shoulderless jar which may be used for either home canning or freezing. It seals on the top with a two piece metal cap.
JAR CAP is the cover used to seal a jar. There are two styles available:
The two-piece metal cap (example, Ball Mason Dome Cap) is a lid and screw band combination. The lid is fitted with a rubber sealing compound, and no other rubber is needed. The lid is used once only. The band may be reused with a new lid.
The one-piece zinc cap is lined with white porcelain. It is used with Mason jars and rubber rings.
JAR LID is a shallow cover of metal.
METAL BAND is a screw thread band that is used with a metal lid to form a two-piece metal cap.
JAR RUBBER is a flat rubber ring which is used as a gasket between a zinc cap and the jar.
COLD or RAW PACK is a method of filling jars. The jars are filled with raw food, then the filled jars are processed.
HOT PACK is a method of filling jars. The jars are filled with hot food. then the filled jars are processed.
PROCESSING is the cooking of jars of food in a water-bath canner or a steam-pressure canner for a long enough time to destroy bacteria, enzymes, molds and yeasts.
LOW-ACID FOODS are foods which con-tain very little natural acid. Examples of low-acid foods are all vegetables except tomatoes and meats, poultry, sea foods and soups.
ACID FOODS are foods which normally contain from 0.36 to 2.35 or more per cent natural acid, and foods which are Preserved in vinegar. Examples of acid foods are fruits, rhubarb, tomatoes, sauer-kraut, pickles and relishes.
VENTING or EXHAUSTING is forcing air to escape from a jar or permitting air to escape from a steam-pressure canner.
VACUUM SEAL is the absence of normal atmospheric (air) pressure in jars which are airtight. When a jar is closed at room temperature, the atmospheric pressure is the same inside and outside the jar. When the jar is heated, everything in it expands and air is forced out, then the pressure in-side the jar becomes less than that on the outside. As the jar cools, everything in it shrinks. a partial vacuum forms, and atmospheric pressure of almost 15 pounds Per square inch (at sea level) holds the lid down to keep the jar sealed. The red rubber sealing compound on Ball Mason Dome Lids, and the rubber rings used with zinc caps. keep air from going back into sealed jars.
BACTERIA, MOLDS and YEASTS are low forms of plant life known to scientists as microorganisms. These microorganisms are found in vegetable (growing) form or spore (seed) form. They exist everywhere —in the air, in water and in the soil. When they are not destroyed by cooking. they will grow in canned food and cause it to spoil.
ENZYMES are natural substances found in all fruits. meats and vegetables. If they are not destroyed by cooking. they will cause changes in the color, texture and flavor of canned food.
BOTULISM is a poisoning caused by a toxin. The toxin is produced by the growth of spores of Clostridium botulinum in a sealed jar. Spores of Clostridium botulinum are carried from one place to another by dust, wind and the soil clinging to raw foods. These spores can grow in a tightly sealed jar of any low-acid food because they belong to a species of bacteria which cannot grow in the presence of air and which does not normally thrive in acid foods. The spores are destroyed when low-acid foods are correctly processed in a steam-pressure canner which is in good working order. Home canners who use the correct methods of selecting, preparing, packing and processing foods have no reason to worry about botulism. As an extra precaution, all low-acid foods should be boiled for 15 minutes be-fore tasting in order to destroy any toxin which could be present if some error were made in processing. Thick masses, such as greens, should be stirred while boiling.
FLAT-SOUR is the most common type of spoilage in canned vegetables. It is caused by bacteria which give food an unpleasant, sourish flavor. Flat-sour is avoided by the use of correct methods of selecting. handling, preparing, packing, processing and cooling foods.
MOLD may change the flavor of the food, but is not considered harmful when a few flecks are present on top of canned fruit, jelly or preserves. A heavy growth of mold is a warning not to use the food.
FERMENTATION of canned food is caused by yeasts which have not been destroyed during processing or yeasts which enter the jar before it is sealed. With the exception of some pickles, fermented food should not be used If pickles be-gin to ferment in the jar and some of the liquid runs out, the pickles should be rinsed and packed in clean hot jars, fresh pickling solution should be made and poured boiling hot over the pickles and the jars processed in a water-bath canner to prevent further fermentation.
Image 3: Here are some tips on destroying the MOLDS, YEAST, BACTERIA and ENZYMES that could spoil your canning and preserving
WE ARE . . . Microorganisms which are found in the soil, in the water, in the air and on all surfaces with which we come in contact. If we are not destroyed by heat during processing canned foods, we cause the food to spoil: and. if the jar is not sealed when stored away we sneak into the jar and cause spoilage.
We, the molds, form fuzzy patches on food. We the yeasts, cause food to ferment. BOTH of us thrive on fruits and tomatoes and also on jams. jellies and pickles. We are easily destroyed by heat so the acid foods can be processed at a temperature of 212°F in a boiling water bath canner.
Our friends, the bacteria, give food an unnatural flavor called flat sour, and they cause food to become soft and slimy. Bacteria prefer the low acid foods—vegetables and meats. Some of them are very hard to destroy, so the low acid foods must be processed at 240°F. in a steam pressure canner.
(Image: Drawing of molds, yeasts, and bacteria with angry faces)
(Image: Drawing of a man looking through a microscope at a large, scowling creature)
WHAT ARE ENZYMES?
We are chemical substances found in all plants and animals If uncooked foods are not used while fresh. We cause changes in color. texture and flavor If we are NOT destroyed by heat during processing, we cause the same changes in canned foods
(Image: Drawing of two men in a chemistry lab)
MANY FACTORS AFFECT HOW LONG FOOD HAS TO BE PROCESSED IN ORDER TO… DESTROY US
Not only the acidity of the food and the temperatures under which the foods are processed. but also how many of us microorganisms are present in the food and how quickly the heat penetrates to the center of the jai Consequently. to insure we are destroyed. we suggest you follow the recommended methods and times for processing each food as found in the Blue Book. And please remember to check the jars you have sealed before storing them away in a cool dark place ready for use later in the year.
(Image: eight Ball mason jars of various sizes)
Image 4: How to Use Ball Jars and Fittings
(Image: Drawing of two Ball mason jars of different heights with their lids off)
BALL MASON JARS
Examine jars with fingertips for nicks. chips and cracks in sealing surface.
Discard ones unsuitable for canning.
Wash jars in hot soapy water and rinse well.
Do not use wire brushes, steel wool or washing soda for cleaning jars; they are apt to damage glass.
Place in hot water until ready to fill. It is not necessary to boil jars in which food is to be processed.
Seal with Ball Mason Dome Caps or zinc caps and rubber rings. Follow directions for filling and sealing according to fittings being used.
A sudden change of temperature is apt to cause any jar to break. Never put a hot jar on a cold surface or in a draft. Never Pour boiling liquid into a cool jar.
BALL CAN OR FREEZ JARS
To use for canning following step-by-step instructions for Ball Mason Jars.
For jellies, jams, conserves, marma-lades, preserves, see instructions for each section. The sections are listed in table of contents and in the index.
Ball Can or Freez Jars may also be used for canning pick/es or relishes.
Information for use in freezing, read instructions on page 95 at the beginning of the Freezer Section.
BALL MASON DOME CAPS
Examine top and edges of jar: both must be smooth and even. Old jars were made for shoulder sealing: consequently, the top finish is usually unsuitable for top sealing with Ball Mason Dome Caps.
Wash and rinse lids and bands. Cover lids with water. Bring to simmer (180°F.). Remove from heat. Leave in water until ready to use (Image: drawing of water being poured into a mason jar)
Fill hot jar. Leave 1-inch head space for meats, corn, peas and other low-acid foods; 1/2-inch head space for fruits and acid vegetables. Add liquid to completely cover food solids. Leave 1A-inch head space for juices, preserves. pickles and relishes: Ya-inch head space for jellies.
Remove air bubbles from fruit and vegetable packs by running table knife between food and jar.
Wipe top and screw threads of jar with clean, damp cloth. Put lid on jar. compound next to glass. sealing
Screw band tight but do not use force. Band must screw down evenly all the way around.
Process immediately. using and method for product being canned.
Remove jars from canner. Do not tighten bands after processing Test for seal.
Store without bands. right time
BALL ZINC CAPS
Use new rubber rings. Wash caps and rubbers in hot soapy water Rinse. Keep rubbers wet until needed. If zinc caps have been used. boil them for 15 minutes.
Before filling jar. stretch wet rubber just enough to place flat on sealing shoulder.
See step 3 under Ball Mason Dome Caps for amount of head space to leave when filling jars.
Remove air bubbles from fruit and vegetable packs by running table knife be-tween food and jar.
Wipe top surface of rubber and threads of jar with clean. damp cloth.
Screw cap tight. then loosen about inch.
Process immediately. using right time and method for product being canned.
Remove jars from canner. Slowly screw caps tight . quick turns may cause the rubbers to slip.
Let jars cool about 12-24 hours. Check seal .. if top of cap is low in center, jar is sealed. Do not tighten cap after jar has cooled.
(Image: Drawing of three mason jars with a diamond pattern)
BALL QUILTED CRYSTAL JARS CANNING
Quilted Crystal Jars may be used for canning. Follow directions for using Ball Mason Jars. For preparation of caps follow instructions for Ball Mason Dome Caps.
BALL QUILTED CRYSTAL JARS FREEZING
Quilted Crystal Jars may be used for freezing. Follow directions for preparing Ball Can or Freez Jars on page 95. Excellent for Freezer Jams.
(Image: Drawing of two jelly glasses with a diamond pattern)
BALL QUILTED CRYSTAL JELLY GLASSES
Follow instructions given for jelly glasses in Jelly Section. Sealing with Paraffin -use only for jelly. Do not try to process in canner Lid is only cover and does not seal airtight to obtain vacuum seal
(Image: Drawing of a person testing a mason jar lid according to the instructions below)
HOW TO TEST SEALS OF TWO-PIECE CAP
When jars of food are thoroughly cool. 12-24 hours:
Press center of lid; if lid is down and will not move. jar is sealed Remove band, wipe threads with damp cloth, store.
Or tap the center of the lid with a spoon. A clear ringing sound means a good seal Remove band. wipe threads with damp cloth Store in cool, dark, dry place
Check for airtight seal by tilting the jar slightly. If there is no leakage. remove band. wipe jar clean and store in cool, dark, dry place.
Image 5: Canning Peaches...Step by Step
The raw (cold) pack is shown on these pages. When using Ball Zinc Caps and Mason Jars, prepare, pack and process as shown here.
(Note: each step has an image showing what is described.)
Check jars. Be sure there are no nicks, cracks or sharp edges.
Wash and rinse jars and caps. Leave jars in hot water until ready to use.
Sort, wash and drain only enough firm-ripe peaches for one canner load. Fill water-bath canner handful with hot water. Put canner on to heat. Prepare sugar sirup.
Put peaches in wire basket or cheese cloth. Dip peaches into boiling water 1/2 to 1 minute to loosen skins. Dip into cold water. Drain.
Cut peaches into halves, put and peel. Drop halves into salt-vinegar water (2 tablespoons each to 1 gallon of cold water). Rinse before packing.
Stand hot jar on rubber tray, wood or cloth. Pack peaches, cavity side down, layers overlapping. Leave 1/2-inch head space.
Cover peaches with boiling hot sirup, leaving 1/2-inch head space. It will take 1 to 1 1/2 cups sirup for each quart jar.
Run table knife gently between fruit jar to release air bubbles. Add more sirup if needed.
Wipe top and threads of jar with clean, damp cloth. Put lid on, screw band tight...it must screw down evenly to hold red rubber seal compound against jar top.
As each jar is filled, stand it on rack in canner. Water should be hot, but not boiling. If needed, add more water to cover jars 1 to 2 inches. Put cover on canner.
Bring water to a boil. At altitudes less than 1,000 feet above sea level process pints 25 minutes, quarts 30 minutes, at a gentle but steady boil.
Remove jars from canner. Let cool for about 12 hours. Test for seal. Remove bands. Store without bands.
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There’s a line from American Gods I keep coming back to in relation to Yellowjackets, an observation made early on by Shadow in prison: “The kind of behavior that works in a specialized environment, such as prison, can fail to work and in fact become harmful when used outside such an environment.” I keep rotating it in my head in thinking about the six survivors, the roles they occupy in the wilderness, and the way the show depicts them as adults in society.
Because in the wilderness, as in prison, they’re trapped—they’re suffering, they’re traumatized, they’re terrified—but they’re also able to construct very specific boxes to live in. And, in a way, that might make it easier. Cut away the fat, narrow the story down to its base arc. You are no longer the complex young woman who weighs a moral compass before acting. You no longer have the luxury of asking questions. You are a survivor. You have only to get to the next day.
Shauna: the scribe. Lottie: the prophet. Van: the acolyte. Taissa: the skeptic. Misty: the knight. Natalie: the queen. Neat, orderly, the bricks of a new kind of society. And it works in the woods; we know this because these six survive. (Add Travis: the hunter, while you’re at it, because he does make it to adulthood).
But then they’re rescued. And it’s not just lost purpose and PTSD they’re dealing with now, but a loss of that intrinsic identity each built in the woods. How do you go home again? How do you rejoin a so-called civilized world, where all the violence is restricted to a soccer field, to an argument, to your own nightmares?
How does the scribe, the one who wrote it all out in black and white to make sense of the horrors, cope with a world that would actively reject her story? She locks that story away. But she can’t stop turning it over in her head. She can’t forget the details. They’re waiting around every corner. In the husband beside her in bed. In the child she can’t connect with across the table. In the best friend whose parents draw her in, make her the object of their grief, the friend who lives on in every corner of their hometown. She can’t forget, so she tries so hard to write a different kind of story instead, to fool everyone into seeing the soft maternal mask and not the butcher beneath, and she winds up with blood on her hands just the same.
How does the prophet come back from the religion a desperate group made of her, a group that took her tortured visions, her slipping mental health, and built a hungry need around the very things whittling her down? She builds over the bones. She creates a place out of all that well-intended damage, and she tells herself she’s helping, she’s saving them, she has to save them, because the world is greedy and needs a leader, needs a martyr, needs someone to stand up tall and reassure everyone at the end of the day that they know what’s best. The world, any world, needs someone who will take those blows so the innocent don’t have to. She’s haunted by everyone she didn’t save, by the godhood assigned to her out of misplaced damage, and when the darkness comes knocking again, there is nothing else to do but repeat old rhymes until there is blood on her hands just the same.
How does the acolyte return to a world that cares nothing for the faith of the desperate, the faith that did nothing to save most of her friends, that indeed pushed her to destroy? She runs from it. She dives into things that are safe to believe in, things that rescue lonely girls from rough home lives, things that show a young queer kid there’s still sunshine out there somewhere. She delves into fiction, makes a home inside old stories to which she already knows the endings, coaxes herself away from the belief that damned her and into a cinemascope safety net where the real stuff never has to get in. She teaches herself surface-level interests, she avoids anything she might believe in too deeply, and still she’s dragged back to the place where blood winds up on her hands just the same.
How does the skeptic make peace with the things she knows happened, the things that she did even without meaning to, without realizing? She buries them. She leans hard into a refusal to believe those skeletons could ever crawl back out of the graves she stuffed them into, because belief is in some ways the opposite of control. She doesn’t talk to her wife. She doesn’t talk to anyone. It’s not about what’s underneath the surface, because that’s just a mess, so instead she actively discounts the girl she became in the woods. She makes something new, something rational and orderly, someone who can’t fail. She polishes the picture to a shine, and she stands up straight, the model achievement. She goes about her original plan like it was always going to be that way, and she winds up with blood on her hands just the same.
How does the knight exist in a world with no one to serve, no one to protect, no reason propelling the devastating choices she had grown comfortable making? She rechannels it. She convinces herself she’s the smartest person in the room, the most capable, the most observant. She convinces herself other people’s mysteries are hers to solve, that she is helping in every single action she takes. She makes a career out of assisting the most fragile, the most helpless souls she can find, and she makes a hobby out of patrolling for crimes to solve, and when a chance comes to strap her armor back on and ride into battle, she rejoices in the return to normalcy. She craves that station as someone needed, someone to rely upon in the darkest of hours, and she winds up with blood on her hands because, in a way, she never left the wilderness at all.
How does the queen keep going without a queendom, without a pack, without people to lead past the horrors of tomorrow? She doesn’t. She simply does not know how. She scrounges for something, anything, that will make her feel connected to the world the way that team did. She moves in and out of a world that rejects trauma, punishes the traumatized, heckles the grieving as a spectacle. She finds comfort in the cohesive ritual of rehabilitation, this place where she gets so close to finding herself again, only to stumble when she opens her eyes and sees she’s alone. All those months feeding and guiding and gripping fast to the fight of making it to another day, and she no longer knows how to rest. How to let go without falling. She no longer wears a crown, and she never wanted it in the first place, so how on earth does she survive a world that doesn’t understand the guilt and shame of being made the centerpiece of a specialized environment you can never explain to anyone else? How, how, how do you survive without winding up with blood on your hands just the same?
All six of these girls found, for better or worse, a place in the woods. All six of them found, for better or worse, a reason to get up the next day. For each other. And then they go home, and even if they all stayed close, stayed friends, it’d still be like stepping out of chains for the first time in years. Where do you go? How do you make small choices when every decision for months was life or death? How do you keep the part of yourself stitched so innately into your survival in a world that would scream to see it? How do you do away with the survivor and still keep going?
They brought it back with them. Of course they did. It was the only way.
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Victory gardens were popular during World War I and II as a way for families on the "home front" to produce their own food and boost morale during food rationing war efforts. This Victory Gardener's Guide, Including Food Preservation Guide (1944), came from the Victory Garden Committee of the Cuyahoga County Council for Civilian Defense and the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland, in Ohio, as a practical guide to making victory gardens at home. Read below for more information on victory gardens and a sample garden plot.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
Image transcripts:
Foreword
Dear Victory Gardeners:
We are presenting to you herewith the new 1944 edition of the "Victory Gardener's Guide." We believe you will be delighted with its practical sug-gestions and new features:
Our Government is asking for more and better gardens in 1944. Last year we had 110,000 gardens in Cuyahoga County. That was a good record and we are proud of it. But there must be more and better gardens this year.
We hope that every family with a sunny site and suitable soil will have a vegetable and fruit garden if possible. Our 110,000 Victory Gardeners of 1943 should make plans immediately for more productive gardens this season. We also need from 15,000 to 25,000 additional Victory Gardeners. Begin now to select your site and make your plans for this summer.
Plan your garden carefully and then carry it out faithfully. Study this guide thoroughly. Use your seed and fertilizer for capacity production. Take care of the garden through every stage of planting, care, and harvesting. DON'T waste seed, fertilizer, or soil.
We wish to express our appreciation to the Executive Committee for their painstaking work on this guide. They are Mr. Robert P. Brydon, Chairman, Mr. Henry Pree, Mr. Harold Ward, Miss Helen Grant Wilson, Mr. Paul R. Young and Mr. Herbert G. Meyer, Director. They have been ably assisted by the Food Preservation Division, a group of leading home economists of Cleveland.
They have prepared this "Guide" for the sole purpose of helping you. The text has been revised and simplified. Twenty-three line drawings have been added, including one of the Mall Garden location. The seven 1943 Garden plans are still featured. Every one of these forty pages is packed with practical information.
We wish you good luck and a fine garden. You will enjoy the vegetables and fruit you raise and you will have the consciousness of giving real help in a worthy cause.
ARTHUR J. CULLER, Chairman Committee on Social Welfare and Health Civilian Defense Council
Making Victory Gardens
This Gardener's Guide is to help you make your Victory Garden efforts as effective as possible. Wasteful, spasmodic, non-productive or war-hysterical gardening must be avoided. The emphasis of Cuyahoga County's Victory Garden program is on better garden making during 1944.
The 1944 Victory Garden goal for United States has been set at twenty-two million home and community gardens, with at least a twenty-five per cent increase in food production. This is four million greater than the 1943 goal and two million larger than the twenty million gardens made in 1943, as estimated by the Gallup Poll. Applying this to Cuyahoga County, every one of this year's 110,000 gardeners should make better and perhaps larger gardens in 1944, and 15,000 new gardens should be made—a total goal of approximately 125,000 GOOD Victory Gardens.
Many valuable sources of information and helps on vegetable gardening are available in Cuyahoga County. These are listed in this booklet. Spe-cific garden plot plans, approved by the Victory Garden Committee for Cuyahoga County, are presented. They are graduated in size to fit the available ground area and the experience of the gardener.
Only a limited supply of these booklets has been printed in order to save paper and other materials. Please do not destroy this or file it away. In war or peace, it is good sense to "use what we have and keep it useful." If you have no further use for this booklet, give it to someone who will use it, or return it.
Who Should Raise Vegetables?
Individuals who have had successful vegetable gardens should continue with them, and increase the yield and quality.
Persons lacking in experience and knowledge of gardening can prepare themselves to make a good Victory Garden by taking advantage of the helps made available by the Victory Garden Committee.
Areas that are shaded, have tree roots in them, or where the soil conditions are not satisfactory, are not worth the sacrifice of vegetable seeds. DON'T waste capital and man power on poorly selected projects.
Sufficient time throughout the season must be budgeted for the Victory Garden to make it a successful venture. Only the amount of vegetables which can be properly cared for should be planted.
Children should be encouraged to participate in the Victory Garden Program under proper supervision. The educational aspect of the garden program should be emphasized, particularly as it relates to health and character building.
Community Maintenance and Improvement
The care of your Victory Garden will lead you into the care of your :lot and house. This is no time for disorder; we must have efficiency. This is no time for waste we must conserve. This is no time to let things run down; we must maintain what we have. War time is clean-up, fix-up time. We must use what we have, and keep it useful ; we will not get new tools, or furniture, or houses, for a long time. If you practice conservation on your own house and yard, you will contribute to the war effort as well as to the values of your home and your community.
You and your neighbors can use your work on Victory Gardens as a spring-board into an effective consciousness of other community problems. By working together on conserving your whole neighborhood as well as your own houses, you will build civic assets for this emergency and for long after. You will be doing real city planning, and building the better communities for which we fight.
As you work in your Victory Garden, you will realize more and more how much time and effort go into all gardening and building. We cannot afford to waste any of our assets. You will want to join in the movement to protect the parks, playgrounds, schools and public buildings that were built with your money for your use. You will feel the need for conservation and wise use of all resources—manpower, food, gardens; homes, neighborhoods, public properties—to win the war, and to enjoy the benefits of pace. And you will do your part.
Why Can?
WHY CAN? Home canning helps to supplement commercial supplies and saves transportation. It provides greater variety in meals by helping to equalize the seasonal food supply, and if properly done, home canning helps to supply food elements which are essential to health. It provides a means of pre-serving the surplus of your Victory Garden.
Home Canning Pays
If you grow supplies in sufficient quantities for your daily use and pro-vide an inexpensive surplus for canning—
If you can as quickly as possible when produce is sound, ripe, and fresh —two hours from plant to can is a good rule—
If you buy direct from a farmer or home gardener at a low cost to justify home canning—
If you have suitable equipment and suitable storage space.
If you will can products efficiently and according to the best canning techniques—
If you can proper amounts of the various food products—not too much nor too little, but just enough to last the family through the coming year
General Rules
There is no such thing as luck in canning. It is a science requiring Care and Precision. The sooner the food is canned after picking, the better the result. The product will be no better than the material that goes into the can. Select foods with care, using only sound perfect produce in prime condition. Canning does not improve the product, it only preserves it.
Use the right method for the food to be preserved. Tomatoes are the easiest vegetable to can. All other vegetables are non-acid and should be canned in a pressure cooker, dried, or put down in salt. The safer method is to sterilize the food packed in the can. The two recommended methods of sterilizing in the can are processing by hot water bath—or by pressure cooker.
Victory Garden Plans
Seven plans for adult Victory Gardens are presented on pages 9 to 15. They range in size from 150 square feet to 5,000 square feet. Two additional plans designed especially for children are shown on page 16. These gardens have all been carefully planned to make full use of soil area for the entire season. The Victory Gardener should select the plan which best fits his conditions.
The smaller sized plots are limited to vegetables economic of space and with high food value. Crops such as corn, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers and perennial crops such as asparagus and rhubarb are included in the larger plots.
The four major vegetables--judged on ease of culture, maximum yield, high vitamin content, general use, and facility of canning or storing—are tomatoes, carrots, beans and vegetable greens. These have been included in the largest amounts consistent with a well balanced vegetable garden plan. All other crops are secondary, yet worthy of inclusion to vary the wartime menu.
Selecting the Plan
The size of the garden should be determined by the site, space and time available, and the needs of the family. Approximately 1,000 square feet of land will produce enough vegetables for a family of four during the summer. A larger plot will be needed to provide for canning and storage. Even the smaller gardens, 1 to 3, yield surprising quantities of vegetables. You can expect to spend at least one hour a day in the 1,000 square foot garden. It is better to take good care of a small garden than to have one so large it is neglected.
These suggested plans may be used for individual home garden plots or as units of a community garden.
Notes and Suggestions
The tomato plants, as shown in the plans, are spaced for staking and tying. If grown on the ground, space 3 to 4 feet apart.
As noted earlier the major crops are tomatoes, beans, carrots and such greens as lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, endive, beets for tops, mustard and others. If more of these major crops are wanted, substitutions may be made, as for example, carrots in the parsnip row, tomatoes where asparagus and rhubarb are shown. It is better, however, to follow the plans.
Potatoes should only be grown in garden areas larger than 5,000 square feet, and only where the soil is suitable. A fairly acid soil is recommended for this crop. Check other cultural information on potato raising before attempting to grow them.
Harvesting of vegetables from the garden is greatly increased by succession planting. As soon as one crop is harvested, fertilize and plant with a crop which will mature before the end of the season. The harvesting period for many vegetables may be extended considerably by planting at one time varieties having different maturity dates. Succession planting is provided for in the plans given in this booklet.
In Plan Number 7, the area on the right side may be planted with early, quick-maturing crops such as lettuce, peas, spinach, onion sets, radishes, etc. This may be done also in Plans 5 and 6 where early crops are not indicated in the areas devoted to late crops. This will result in a still more intensive utilization of the soil area.
READING THE PLANS
The following guide serves for plans 1 to 7.
The rectangles represent the outlines of the plots. The letters A, B, C and D mark the corner stakes.
Lines across the plots mark the vegetable crop rows. Solid lines are for full season rows and broken lines - - - - are for partial season rows. The latter, except where succession crops are marked, indicate "companion" crops.
Names of the crops are shown in the rows. Parentheses ( ) around a crop name indicate a succession crop to be planted after the first crop is harvested.
The small circles indicate transplanted plants; the large circles indicate hills of squash and cucumbers. Short perpendicular lines divide rows between various crops shown.
The inch measure (6", 12", etc.) indicates distances between the rows. These are shown at the left of the plans. The foot measure (2', 4', etc.) indicates distances in the rows, as for example, the spacing distances between transplanted plants, or sections of crop rows.
The asterisks * on the left mark the rows which can be planted as early as soil conditions and season will permit after April 1. Broken lines so marked should be planted first. All rows not so marked should be planted after May 25. Succession crops ( ) are planted immediately after the crops which they follow are harvested. Pepper plants are usually transplanted on or after June 1.
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