After Skipping a Generation, Canning Makes a Comeback

Turning the corner into my grandmother’s store room was like walking into an old-world apothecary. Floor-to-ceiling shelves displayed jar after jar of green beans, squash, okra and stewed tomatoes; relishes and salsas; jams, jellies and preserves. These one-quart Mason jars were the cornerstone of our holiday meals, and it never once occurred to me until years later why we didn’t have that same room in our home.

My grandmother was one of a generation of Georgians who grew and canned their own food, a staple of Southern foodways. Once thought to be a dying skill, canning is just one more tradition that has been rediscovered in Athens.