Each issue of edible Portland ends with a ‘last bite’ – a one-page spread comprised of an inspiring photo and a short caption, recipe, quote etc. In fact, many of the edible Communities publications end this way – in edible Marin & Wine Country it’s called the ‘cherry on top,’ which I love. The last bite of the Winter 2010 issue of edible Portland is a photo of an Oregon woman bent over a box of rhubarb in her cellar, surrounded by 800 quarts of home-canned food. The photo was taken by Dorothea Lange in 1939, just before the end of the Great Depression. Whenever I think of canning, this photo pops into my head. It just makes so much sense – when you have a surplus of something, or the ability to create a surplus, preserve it. And I know it’s not the Great Depression but it’s a difficult time and canning does save a lot of money. This year, I have canned strawberry preserves, ketchup, summer squash & onion relish, salsa and pear sauce – all with produce I grew or was given to me. Well, I bought the palette of strawberries on the side of the road on a rainy day on the way home from Silverton this summer. I couldn’t resist. But the point is that I spent very little on the food that now fills my cabinet, ready to be opened and embraced in the deepest throes of winter. I’ve heard people say something like “canned sunshine” or “sunshine in a jar” in reference to preserved summer fruits. And I think that’s accurate.

My grandmother on my father’s side was gone from this world long before I arrived but when I started canning, my dad told me that it was something his mother did every year. I love this idea – it gives me something to hold on to about the grandmother I never knew and something that qualifies my notion that I would have liked her very much. Home preservation was pretty standard with our grandmothers, who were around before the advent of convenience foods, which are made with some very strange ingredients and preserved with even stranger ones. Thanks to the food movement, which is moving no matter the pace, we have begun to return to practices like home preservation (though some impressive people had never left).

Canning has evolved in a wonderful way – it’s now as creative as it is practical and canning recipes have got some serious flair. I just started canning (which always strikes me, by the way, as a strange name to call the action of preserving things in a jar) last year and I’m fully on board. After a very fruitful harvest at my friend’s grandparent’s apple orchard (more on that next week), I got my hands on what I’ll call a basic starter kit for home canning and an apple butter recipe from the internet and I went from there. From the moment I popped that first jar of apple butter open in, oh, I don’t know, December, I was hooked.

Give canning a try. It’s smart and delicious. Start with something simple, like apple butter. Be sure you’ve got the right equipment and follow the directions closely. Ask your more rural friends for tips on canning and/or extra produce. Stop and buy that whole palette of pears on the side of the road. Take them home and make your grandmother proud.

{Recommended books for canning: Put ‘em Up, Canning for a New Generation}

And if you’re already canning – Grandma thinks you’re rad and What are you canning? What did you open from last year that blew your mind? What’s your favorite thing to can? Books you’d recommend?