August 1941. Coffee County, Alabama. “Josh Smart family participates in the FSA Food for Defense program. Mrs. Eulia Smart says: ‘I never had a pressure cooker before, an’ when I got this one, I canned everything in sight’ — 264 quarts since spring.” Medium format nitrate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration.
We never did get a pressure cooker in our house. With the war on, items like that stopped being available. My grandparents up in Duchess County, NY had one though. Still, my mom did her best putting up what we grew in our Victory Garden. Just took a heck of a lot longer than what her own mother could crank out with that pressure cooker.
My mother usually only used the pressure cooker for peaches, apples, applesauce, and root vegetables. Everything else–blueberries, strawberries, beans, peas, corn, rhubarb–went into the upright freezer. I spent my after-school time in the fall either picking or blanching vegetables.
“Hey, guess what? Food shortages are coming back!” https://thetakeout.com/food-shortages-are-coming-back-1845438071