Preserve a dying art?
PHOTOS BY JOHNNY JENNINGS
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can Melissa Elliott explains the canning process. She’s been putting up food since she was a girl.
BY DAVID MONROE Melissa Elliott learned about the value of canning at a young age, and she still relies on it as a way to preserve good food. When she was growing up in Kosciusko, the whole family got involved in canning, as much out of economic 8 / Leflore Illustrated Fall and Winter 2007-2008
necessity as anything else. “Everybody had their part,” she recalled. “You started at 3 or 4 years old picking up trash and putting it in the garbage can, but everybody had their part.”
She learned how to prep vegetables when she was 6 and learned other skills gradually, including canning, freezing and dehydrating. By the time she was 18, she could do anything needed in the kitchen, including preparation and preserving. Today, she still does a lot of canning. With the cost of groceries rising, she can save money by buying food in bulk and preserving it. Properly canned food can be good for a year or more. Adrian Tribble learned the skill early, too. Her grandmother canned, as did her husband’s mother, aunt and grandmother. Tribble learned the process and stayed with it. “It’s just something I enjoyed,” she recalled. “I was lucky enough I was able to stay home with my children when they were young.” Now, though, more households have two working parents, so people don’t have as much time. Also, not as many people cook these days, and younger people are more likely to freeze items than can them. But those who grew up in the country might be more inclined to do it, especially if they have access to fresh produce.