I started working on my April York Sunday News column, which you can read below, about two months ago. We were just starting to hear more about COVID-19 then. By the time it was finished and published in the paper a couple of weeks ago, it became even more relevant.
From the time the first humans walked the productive soil of what is now York County, Pa., food has been grown, preserved and happily eaten here. Here a few examples from our history: One of my recent York Sunday News columns told about York County’s very successful participation in the
Some of you might remember the Victory Gardens of World War II, when everyone was urged to grow as much food as they could to feed their families. This would free up commercially grown vegetables to be canned to feed our troops fighting overseas and training here. The movement didn’t start with World
It is canning season again. As I indicated in the my York Sunday News column on York County canning houses a few years ago, there were commercial canneries of all sizes throughout 20th century York County. As far as I know, any remaining are very large scale, such as Hanover
Early commercial canners started out preserving vegetables. As techniques improved, it was inevitable that the heating and sealing process would be used for other foods. The photo above, from the November 13, 1950 York Dispatch, shows three women, Mrs. Lillie Greenawalt, Mrs. Reed Monroe and Mrs. Grace Wallace, picking buckets
A friend and I were discussing my recent York Sunday News column on York County canning houses. I remember my father growing tomatoes in Chanceford Township for the canneries when I a small child. My friend’s father had a much larger farming operation and continued farming longer than my family.
Tomatoes and Shakespeare and York County? I recently wrote my York Sunday News column on the canning houses of York County, going back to the 1920s through the 1950s when the canneries dotted the county. Local farmers could easily haul their fresh vegetables just down the road to be canned
Lucky canning house, probably 1930s My 96-year-old mother-in-law remembers picking string beans at farms in Chanceford Township when she was 10 or so in the 1920s. She says she picked beans during the day and then helped snip them at the Lucky canning house in the evening. I purchased a