Yes, We Can
Chaffin Family Orchards will be offering its first ever jam making class on the evening of July 17th at Bacio Catering, 179 E. 19th Street in Chico. The cost to participate is $35 and you must bring with you 12 8oz canning jars. The fruit and all other supplies will be provided. Each person will go home with a full case of peach jam. Pre-pay and RSVP by 07/14/08 by calling Chris Kerston at 530-533-1676.
Preserving the pleasure of summer fruit for enjoyment in the winter months through canning has become a lost art. We are too used to the convenience of being able to hit up the supermarket for road-weary, fossil fuel-laden Mexican tomatoes in February, or for New Zealand peaches in November.
Even rarer is the idea of the canning party, where groups come together to celebrate the harvest as well as preserve it. This was more common once, and believe it or not there are still some towns that have community canning centers. Not only is this more fun than canning alone, it is also more efficient. My wife and I preserved over 7 gallons worth of kiwis chutney this winter, and it is indeed an energy-intensive process (Though in our case, we did it over the gas stove when the power was out this past January, so the endeavor had the secondary bonus of being able to help heat part of our house).
I would be curious (and perhaps a bit fearful) to compare the energy required by Trader Joe's to grow, harvest, process, and ship a year's worth of organic pasta sauce for a family of four vs. the energy required to do your own canning. Other factors that go into this comparison--which are near impossible to quantify and balance--include the joy one gains from gardening, the value one puts on being self-sufficient, the true cost of growing a tomatoes at home (seeds, time, water, tomato cage, etc.), the carbon footprint incurred by the industrial process of growing, canning, and transporting the product, and the value one places on the total time it takes grow and can a batch of tomatoes vs. the amount of time it would take to purchase a year's worth of pasta sauce from the market.
With a canning party, at least some of the economies of scale can be improved over doing it yourself, especially when using a kitchen geared to handle the process, though I doubt it would ever come close to the efficiency of an industrialized system.
It is when canning is looked upon as a pleasurable community-building event, comparable, perhaps, to la barbecue or a bowling outing that its true merits are realized. The difference is that you don't return from the bowling alley with a case full of home made jam.
Look for another canning event at the Chico Grange Hall this August.
Anyone else think a Community Canning Kitchen for Chico would be neat idea?