Drying Corn and Canning Tomatoes During the Great Depression

Reader Contribution by The Mother Earth News Editors
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This story is from Doris Zicafoose, submitted as part of our Wisdom From Our Elders collection of self-sufficient tales from yesteryear.

Preserving food was a big part of our summers. I remember a time or two when my folks tried drying corn. My dad found a metal signboard and they spread the corn we had cut off the cob on the sign and put it out in the hot Oklahoma sun. It had to be covered with cheesecloth to keep the bugs off and if a rain shower appeared, we had to hurry and bring in the corn. But was it ever worth it! That was the most delicious corn; it had a distinctive flavor, very different from canned or fresh corn.

When my mother bought the pressure canner from one of Dad’s really good horse trades, it was a real blessing. We had been canning tomatoes and fruit with a water bath canner. But the pressure canner meant we could can other vegetables. When my sister and I became active in 4-H Club, we won many blue ribbons in the county fair with our pressure-canned vegetables!

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