A Do It Yourself Food Supply
(Page 3 of 4)
July/August 1975
By Jack McQuarrie
The filled baskets are lifted into the air by a pulley, tugged along an overhead track, and lowered gently into one of the huge cookers. Automatic timing devices and careful checking ensure that each batch of fruit, vegetables, or meat is correctly processed. The cans are then lifted once more, carried back along the track, and deposited in a vat of water where they cool.
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Among the more interesting operations that can be observed in a custom cannery is the making of tomato juice. It's fun to watch as the fragrant mixture of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers is scooped up and poured into the top of a juice extractor. The fruit is transformed by the machine into a rich liquid which oozes through a mesh screen into a waiting pot, while discarded dry pulp splatters into a container below.
At Toppenish Custom Cannery (20 miles south of Yakima), we had an opportunity to talk to Kathy Alexander-manager of the operation-who told us that 1974 was shaping up as a record year for the cannery "definitely an attempt to combat high food prices," in her opinion. "This year, in addition to the usual local residents, we've had a surprising number of customers from as far away as the Puget Sound area. "These people spend their vacation camped in the valley, picking their own produce and bringing it here to can."
Other custom canneries are doing a brisk business these days along the seacoast. Their specialty, of course, is seafood and you needn't incur the complications and expense of sport fishing to "lay by" your supply. The secret? Concentrate on easily obtainable quarry such as oysters, clams, crabs, or bottom fish (none of which require a license, a boat, or other costly paraphernalia).
Oysters, for instance, can be taken with only a hammer or other simple tool that will knock them off the rocks to which they cling. To dig clams, you need nothing more than rubber boots and a shovel (and, of course, a low tide). Caution: Check locally before you collect shellfish. They can be toxic at certain times of the year.
Crabs can be trapped at any time with no equipment but a crab ring, which you can rent for a nominal fee ($1.50 to $2.00) at most bait and tackle shops on the west coast. We bought ours for $6.00 from a secondhand store in Newport, Oregon, and it's proven well worth the investment. Oh, yes you'll also need bait. Any, old fish carcass will do (the riper the better, since it's the crab's keen sense of smell that leads the creature to its food).
