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Summertime food canning was a big event for my family and relatives in Bakersfield, whether it was in lean depression years or good times. Most of our relatives were from Texas or Missouri and they were raised on home canned foods so it was a way of life to them. Canning was such a large undertaking, the family with a big kitchen was usually chosen for the meeting place. Some summers at our house and the next year Aunt Macies or Aunt Mables home were used for the "Canning Bee".

Home canning during WW2 was no different except we had to apply at the ration board to get extra sugar for fruit canning and I remember the jars, rings and sealing lids were in short supply so we had to hunt them at many stores. The Government encouraged Victory Gardens and home canning to aid the food shortage.

My earliest memory of a dark, cool cellar was in the thirties, under my Uncle Bob and Aunt Mable's home on East Brundage Lane. When I and my cousins walked down the concrete steps and into that damp room beneath the house it was always a thrill to turn on the light and see the rainbow of beautifully colored fruits and vegetables neatly stacked upon wooden shelves along the walls. The black widow spiders also liked the cellar so we were always careful when in there. Pints, quarts, half gallons all prepared the summer before for us to now pick out our favorites. So delicious, at breakfast, were those sweet sliced peaches or nectarines piled on our bowl of corn flakes.

My Aunt Mable was the undisputed champion of our whole clan when it came to canning a large variety of foodstuffs. Pickled whole peaches, apricots, plums and nectarines filled scores of half gallon mason jars, and preserves of the same fruits stood in rows of quart and pint jars. Corn, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, okra, peas and any other vegetables their big garden could produce were all there waiting to be eaten.

Uncle Bob had planted many varieties of fruit trees over the years on their half acre home site at Brundage Lane and King Street so plenty of fruit was available every summer and when it all began ripening at once our relatives flocked in to hold a big canning bee which usually lasted a few days. My Uncle Bob was a believer in "if its worth doing, its worth doing big"and ten gallon earthenware crocks of sauerkraut and dill pickles were often seen curing in the wash house out back. His hand cranked five gallon ice cream freezer would consume 50 pounds of cracked ice and wear out half a dozen kids as it was so hard to crank but it made enough to feed us and the whole neighborhood besides. That rich ice cream was usually filled with peach, strawberry or apricot preserves from the cellar.

Every family had dozens of boxes filled with Mason jars because none were ever discarded unless the rim was chipped. This canning bee was mostly done by the women and they kept us kids out of the kitchen during the washing, peeling, chopping and cooking process but I remember washing empty jars in the back yard and turning the handle on the big food grinder when they were chopping vegetables. The sweet aroma of fruit, vinegar and spices filled the house as big pots full of fresh produce boiled on the overcrowded stove top. We kids knew bowls of excess fruit would would be given out when the canning was over so we stayed close by.

Each family had their own favorite Chow-Chow recipe and from every one's garden came the green tomatoes, green and red peppers, cabbage and onions needed to create the spicy relish. Boxes of green tomatoes and the other ingredients were run through the big food grinder. That Texas Chow-Chow made anything taste better from beans to beefsteak, a jar of it was on out table at every meal including breakfast, (good with scrambled eggs).

Everyone in our family agreed, my Mom's Chow-Chow recipe was the best of all because it wasn't as pepper spicy as the others and had a sweeter flavor so we kids thought it the best. It seemed each mom had a specialty that her family liked so many uncommon recipes were prepared like pickled okra and beets, spiced tomatoes, watermelon pickles, mixed fruit jelly and jams, the combinations were endless.

Years ago, my wife and I canned a small amount of food when we were raising our three kids but it seemed we could never find time for canning with the long process involved. After we became empty nesters and had time for gardening and raising our own produce we began canning fruits and vegetables and soon we had two cabinets filled with beautiful foodstuffs. Strangely, few guests cared to take any home with them and we ate so little of it, we gradually stopped canning. I guess this happens to most of us now that supermarkets are filled with every kind of food under the sun but nothing in a grocery store can compare with the great taste of that home canned food and besides, look at all the fun we had at those wonderful canning bees.

(C) By George Gilbert Lynch, April 2006