Eat in

The following week, Patrick, 67, took a day off work and arrived at New London with a half-bushel of string beans purchased from a local farmer and a few peaches she picked from a neighbor’s tree. Only vaguely recalling how the process worked, Patrick walked up the worn wooden steps of the small cinder-block building feeling slightly nervous. When a woman sitting on the narrow porch offered her a welcoming smile, Patrick said hello and volunteered that she had never been there before. “Next thing I knew,” Patrick says, “the lady flung the screen door open and yelled inside ‘We’ve got a new one!’”

Patrick walked through the doorway into the cannery’s bustling work area where she was met with a chorus of helpful voices telling her where to put her things and how to get started. A few hours later, she walked out the door with a broad smile across her face, a few new friends and her produce securely sealed in cans ready to be enjoyed this winter. When asked if she would be returning any time soon, she didn’t hesitate: “Honey, I’ll be back next week with squash and more beans!”

July signals the opening of canning season, the yearly ritual of “putting up” the summer harvest. That’s old-fangled talk for sealing fresh food in an airtight container and subjecting it to high temperatures—and in some cases also high pressure—to destroy micro-organisms that cause spoilage. Properly handled, the contents should last for a year or more. Canning can be done in home kitchens, but at least 11 Virginia counties, most of them in the rural central and southwest portions of the state, offer facilities where people may process their produce on commercial-grade equipment under the watchful eye of trained operators. Work that might take an entire day or more in a home kitchen takes only hours in a cannery. As an added benefit, many of the facilities have equipment that allows customers to seal their harvest in metal cans. The finished product is not as aesthetically pleasing as the glass jars used in home canning, but it is sturdier and easier to store.