Venders at the farmers market often have bushel baskets filled with fruits and vegetables, but I’m never sure how many quarts of canned goods they’ll yield, so I was pleased to find a canning guide in a hundred-year-old cookbook. Many things change over time, but I assume that yield ratios stay the same.
Sheryl, I come from the home of Ball jars. We swear by the the Ball Blue Book (the bible of canning). It has been continuously published since 1907… Anyway my copy from 1977 had been updated to reflect the increased size of many fruits and vegetables. The guide for jar estimating states that 1 bushel of peaches yields 18-24 quarts – depending on if you are canning halved or sliced peaches… So I think things have changed even in the 53 years between 1924 and 1977… And probably between 1977 and 2024!!
Fascinating – Something that I thought won’t change across the years, actually has changed. I hadn’t thought about how peaches and other fruits may have gotten larger across the years (and that large fruits don’t pack as tightly into a basket or box), though now that I think about it, I recently bought some very large peaches.
Thanks Sheryl. But I wonder how many of us will make use of this useful information? Sadly, not me.
No, large-scale canning this year? Actually, I also haven’t done any canning this year – though might make a few pickles or something.
We don’t have an allotment any more, so … no 😦
I have canned thru the years….and I love the look of the beautiful jars on my counter when I am done…
Having said that I will not be canning this year cause its to damn hot and the cost of raw goods is just to high…
It’s unbelievable how expensive fresh fruit and vegetables have become. They sure have increased in price over the last year or so.
Handy to know!
I’m always amazed how much information is provided in some old cookbooks.
I know! There are usually conversion charts, measurements, substitutions, etc., but they had no internet to double check facts!
This reminds me of how much things have changed in relatively recent years. Until the internet came along, cookbooks had to contain all sorts of information about how to cook, while dictionaries and enclyclopedias contained most other information that the typical household needed.
For sure! When I come across a cooking term or dish I’m not familiar with, I’m just a click away from the answer, and I don’t recall there being a lot of cookbooks in the library back then, at least not with different cultures featured,
Writing a report in school meant going to the library, looking up all kinds of things, and taking mountains of notes, and still we were often left with the feeling that there wasn’t enough.
And, after taking that mountain of notes (probably on index cards), having to write it by hand, and then either re-copy it neatly or type it (on an electric typewriter if you were lucky)–while keeping the correction fluid or tape handy.
Oh the memories!!!
Who knew sizes of vegetables and fruits would be updated???
I had the same reaction. I learn so much from my readers.