Day 31 - hanover Cannery

Wow.  That is the first impression of this day.  It started off a bit off kilter, but once it got going.. it GOT going.  I met with Carol at the Hanover Cannery, and with the Percy, the County Administrator in Caroline, and finally i met with Meghan at Micah Ministries.

The Hanover Cannery
  I arrived around 9am at the Hanover Cannery.  Here I met with Carol, the Supervisor of the Cannery.  She has been working at the cannery since 1982, and it opened in 1980.  It opened as a means of consolidating the multiple canneries that were scattered throughout the county.  Carol explained that there were canneries at almost all of the schools, and they were used as educational tools and community resources.  The cannery now falls under the jurisdiction of the county Public Works department. 

Carol walked me through the process of canning when a person comes into the facility.  She described the various different things that happen and what the regulations are for the many different things that are commonly canned. 
First, you would bring in your produce and wash it in giant sinks.  Then once clean it would be put onto trays for blanching, a single layer deep.  Once blanched, the skins are then removed.  There are various different things that can happen in between this point and the point that the produce makes it into a can or jar.  Some of those things are apples can be made into apple sauce or sliced, or corn shucked off of the cob, or tomatoes made into sauce.  Once the final product, whatever form that may be, is obtained then it is put into the cans/jars.  Then, if need be, water is added to fill the space in and then it is heated in the steamer.  The steamer heats the jar/can and contents to the appropriate temperature for sealing the can.  If the can is not the right temp for the produce that is in there, then the seal will not form appropriately.  Once the lids are on then they are loaded into a basket.  The basket is then hoisted up, on a lift pulley system and moved to a retort machine.  The retort machine can handle 75 1-quart jars or 115 cans per cycle.  Once the cans.jars are in the retort machine, the process is nearing end, sort of, as all that is left is heating and cooling, but the things have to be in the retort machines for a while.  Once the cans have been in for the allotted time, then if they are cans, then they are moved to the cooling baths to cool.  If it is glass the process is a whole lot different as glass has special needs, to put it mildly. 

Carol showed me how each machine works and what they do.  She also showed me how each machine records what it is doing so that there is a record of each time the retort machines are turned on and used.  She also showed me how zucchini bread can be made in a can.  It was really neat.  We talked about the limitations of what people can and cannot do with their food once it has been canned.  the metal cans may be the major factor that would drive the cannery out of business someday.  The cans last year (2008) cost .86 cents and this year (2009) each can cost $1.02.  The cannery raised the price of usage by ten cents, but it still did not truly cover the cost of people coming in.  The reasoning for keeping the price low is to encourage people to use the facility, however, if they cannot meet the rising costs of cans appropriately, then there will be difficulties keeping the cannery open.

We also had a great talk about recipes and how to make jellies.  She suggested some great books to me on canning and getting started with the process.  It was so informative I hated having to leave.  But alas I had to go to my next meeting...  read on in the next section for those exciting details.