Because it IS an obsession. ;)

Here are a couple of previous discussions on the question with lots of answers from fellow canners.

Dave

Why preserve my own food?

Why can?

How about tradition as a reason? I love to get out my grandmother's old, handwritten recipes in old notebooks from the 1930's through the 1960's. Always very interesting.

Some are rather cryptic and I can't use them because they call for ingredients such as "5 cents worth of sugar" or "a pennies worth of alum". But fun to speculate about how much sugar you got for a nickle in the 1930's.

denninmi,

That's so neat to have your grandmother's recipes and feel that tradition!

For me the reasons have changed over time.

I come from a long line of city folk. My grandmother didn't can. For her, gardening meant growing roses. She and my grandfather OWNED a farm as an investment property and leased it to tennants. (My mom says my grandmother did can during WWII, when you pretty much had to, and hated it.)

My mother didn't see any point to canning OR gardening --- and as she had her hands full running her own business and raising five kids and being a community leader I have no quarrels with how she chose to spend her time.

I started canning myself about 7 or 8 years ago now when I lived in downtown Toronto, and I started growing tomatoes. I thought it would be fun to grow some yellow ones, and while researching tomato varieties found out about heirloom vegetables and GW's tomato forum. Someone from the forum sent me a few dozen kidns of seeds, and soon I was growing way more tomatoes than we could eat so that I could try all the amazing different varities. I didn't want the extra to go to waste, so I learned to can. I put up a whole year's worth of tomato products for me and DH from the product of my city backyard in my kitchen overlooking the streetcar tracks. (My early adventures in finding canning supplies in my multicultural urban neighbourhood were amusing, to say the least.)

But if at first I canned because I gardened, by now it would be just as accurate to say I garden because I like to can. I got used to the flavour of home-canned tomato sauce and salsa and found the supermarket cans a disappointment; I discovered that canned fruit could be a wonderful thing, especially on a winter morning (I'd always found it slimy and overly sweet); and I LOVED looking at rows of ready-to-eat goodness from my own kitchen on my shelves. Makes me feel self sufficient, as mockturtle says, and ready for anything.

Meanwhile we moved to a small town and my new home has a PANTRY full of those shelves, and there are farm stands everywhere (I can even WALK to one) for the stuff I don't grow. Everyone around here cans, and so I feel a bit like I've found my place.

This year when I didn't have a chance to start tomato seeds, I found I couldn't stand the idea of NOT having a pantryful of home-canned tomato products, and so I bought some and begged some.

I enjoy doing it. It tastes good. It feels good.

Z

I'm pretty sure it is genetic for me. Though my Mother never canned much, and didn't even like to garden, her parents were avid gardeners and processed lots and lots of food. My Dad told the story how he remembers his In-laws (even before they were in-laws) would rent any unused corner they could find, and grow things in addition to their quarter acre lot. My Mom was required to spend time tending the garden every day, and she grew up hating it, so even as a farmer's wife, she never had a veggie garden. I secretly think she didn't like the outdoors much - but she fell in love with a farmer.

My maternal grandparents put up enough to basically feed my Mom's family of 11 kids, so I grew up eating lots and lots of home canned/frozen food. The funny part is I don't hardly remember helping with the produce. Comes from my Mom having four girls in a row and by the time I came along, Dad was desperate for more Farm help, so instead of learning "girl stuff" I was driving a Tractor by the time I was big enough to manage it.

My grandparents have long since passed away, but I hope they are able to look down and see that they have a granddaughter that ended up with their passion for gardens and produce. How I would love the chance to talk to them about it all now, but when I was a young mother living in an apartment, I didn't know I'd fall in love with gardening like I have.

Canning is just a natural progression that results from my love of growing things.

Cathy

I'm married to a man who takes company to the basement to show off what all the "little woman" has put up. He does most of the gardening and helps me a lot in the kitchen. His mom canned and preserved pretty much everything they ate in the winter, they had a big garden, also chickens, a cow and a pig for the scraps. Except for coffee, flour and sugar they hardly bought anything.
We lived in town, but my mother canned a lot of fruit and pickles, and all of our preserves.I love to cook, so canning is just a natural thing to do, plus the food is way better than what you can buy, and I KNOW there are no additives in it.
Maybe we just get a sense of security from having those shelves of food, I think it goes back to childhood, seeing it all and knowing you won't go hungry.

mockturtle, I also live outside of L.A. (San Gabriel valley)! I can a few items. My friends don't seem to mind at all and are eager to get the goodies.

I am very interested in the tomato varieties you grow. I can share what has done well for us is you'd like.

I can (or use other methods to preserve food) when either,

- I have an excess, or
- I like to eat it all the time but it only grow part of the year, or,
- the canned (preserved0 product has reached gourmet status in our household. So we grow more of it to can (or dry) since we like the product so much.

The place I got came with lots of established fruit trees, and more fruit than anyone can eat fresh. So I can that because I have an excess. I make marmalade out of my citrus, and I dry my figs. If I have excess peaches I make peach butter.

Cherry tomatoes produce for a long time here, but I miss tomato products made from larger tomatoes in the winter/spring. Tomatoes in cans are not too good for us, so I buy tomato paste in glass jars from an ethnic market. They are good, sweet tomato flavor, not as good as the complex heirloom flavors, but pretty good. They come from Turkey and/or Morocco. Tomatoes grow in southern California, obviously, but I have to buy them from across the world to get them in glass jars. This year we canned/froze/dried enough to carry us over until next summer. Buying tomatoes from across the world does not make sense when I can preserve better ones from my backyard.

After making dilly beans, chow chow (the zucchini version), and a hotter version of Annie's salsa, we grow and will continue to grow more of the main ingredients so we can make more of the canned product. I am sure that more of them will get added to the list. Suggestions anyone? They are just so much better then the commercial versions it is hard to believe it.

cabrita,

Canned fruit is the other revelation to me in terms of what is so much better than commercial it is hard to believe it. I can peaches, pears, applesauce (and apple-mixed-with-something-else-sauce) to open for a winter breakfast. Never had an interest in canned fruit till I canned my own! It isn't like fresh, of course. But it's so different from what's in a supermarket tin!

And the newest one for me is grape jam. I never knew what those fake-candy-flavour confections were trying to emulate till I made jam with fresh blue grapes last fall.

Z

I started canning about 1.5 or so score ago.
It started with Elk, venison and fish. Preserve the harvest I guess. Then I moved into potatoes and carrots using 50 lb bags from the farmers market. (Dan Q is that spelling correct?) I wanted almost instant home made stew. Next were the green beans and beets and so on.
My introduction to home canning was from my grandma. She made great canned peaches. Her brother canned pickles and made his own horseradish. That stuff was awesome.
I think the "old country" in my relatives struck me as something good.
Today my wife is canning tomatoes. Yesterday was green beans. Corn is taken off the cob and frozen on a sheet pan and packed in bags in the freezer. Likewise raspberries.
Next month I'll dig some Horseradish and prepare it. Brings a tear to my eye.
Seems, in todays world, it is one of the few things that bring satisfaction and a job well done.

I can because I'm SICK - certifiably crazy- just can't stop myself!

Ok - now it's time to get back out there and get that second batch of pears done up -

Cathy