Preserving Asparagus Canning

The canning factory has made asparagus a vegetable for every day of the

year instead of being a luxury for a few weeks, as was formerly the

case. The canners have made it a farm crop instead of a garden product.

To a great extent canning has transformed the farm into a garden,

increasing the profits from every acre planted many fold. In many

localities an acre of what was formerly considered a sandy waste is now

yielding more than double the net profit of the best acre under

cultivation in ordinary farm crops.



Eastern methods.--The pioneers in this industry on Long Island, N. Y.,

have been the Messrs. Hudson & Sons, who have extensive plants at

Mattituck and Riverhead, each of them as complete as mechanical skill

and enterprise can make them. Each plant consists of a storehouse, 50 x

150 feet; a packing-house, 40 x 125 feet; and a can manufactory, 25 x 60

feet. A steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoisting,

pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering-heaters, and a boiler

of one hundred horse-power to generate steam for sterilizing the

asparagus. A perspective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36.





The asparagus, as it comes from the growers, is in bunches seven and

one-half inches long and weighing two and one-half pounds each. These

bunches are put under a cutter and cut to six and five-eighths inches;

they are then untied and put in a tank four feet wide by eight feet long

and two feet deep, in which they are washed as carefully as it is

possible to do it. It is then hoisted up to what is called the blanching

tank, which contains forty gallons. In this it is kept at a scalding

heat for one-half hour, when it is ready for the cans. These are filled

by women who soon become very dextrous, which is always the case when

the pay is in proportion to the amount of work done. Each can contains

just one and one-half pounds. Exact weight is imperative, as are details

in all manufacturing establishments. Great care is exercised in packing,

so that there are no bruised or broken heads, and that on opening the

can the stalks may appear as well as if cut fresh from the garden. After

the asparagus is in the cans they are filled with a weak brine, which

not only expels the air, but adds materially to the flavor of the

asparagus.



The cans are then taken to the soldering-bench for sealing up. There

systematic labor is noticeable, as every detail of canning must be

carried on systematically to make it profitable. The soldering-irons

used are hollow and the exact size of the caps, which fit perfectly the

grooves made for them. A single turn of the iron finishes the work.

Before the caps are put in their places a small hole is made in each to

allow the gas, which is generated by the heat from the soldering, to

escape. Without this precaution it would be impossible to hermetically

seal the cans. A single drop of solder closes the small opening, and the

cans are ready for the retorts for sterilizing.






Here two methods are employed--dry steam, which is the quicker method,

and boiling in a closed tank. Most of the first-class stock is

sterilized in the latter. This tank (Fig. 37) is in three sections, in

all twenty feet long, each section holding five hundred cans. The cans

are put in iron cribs and are pushed in and taken out with steam

elevators. As soon as the cans are lowered the sections are closed

tightly and the steam is turned on. The first process of sterilization

lasts twenty minutes, when the tank is opened, the cans taken out, and a

vent given each. This permits the accumulated gas to escape, which, if

allowed to remain, would materially injure the quality of the asparagus,

both in flavor and preservation. For this work a small prick punch is

used, which makes a hole not larger than a pin's head. This vent is

almost immediately closed with a single drop of solder and the cans are

again returned to the tanks, where the same operation of cooking is

repeated. Another twenty minutes completes the work, when the cans are

removed to the packing-room, where they are labeled, wrapped, and packed

ready for shipment. The cans or boxes are seven inches long, four wide,

and two and one-half deep. A view of the sterilizing-room is presented

in Fig. 38.






The culls, which are put up as tips, are small-sized and crooked heads

which, although of equal value as a vegetable, are not shipped to

market, as they would detract from the value of the first quality, and

are considered by both farmers and canners as by-products. These are cut

to three and one-half inches in length, and then go through the same

process in canning as the first quality, except that dry steam only is

used in sterilization. After going through the blanching process the

tips are put in round cans, four inches in diameter and five inches

high. After soldering up these cans they are put in the retorts, which

are three feet square, each containing five hundred cans, and treated

with steam two hundred and fifty pounds to the inch. The cans remain in

these retorts half an hour. Then they are taken out, vented, put back

again, and remain under the same pressure another half hour, when the

work is completed.



By rigid economy even in the most minute detail, and by the skill

required in the knowledge of canning, asparagus can now be had at a

reasonable price at all seasons of the year, which is a boon to both

producer and consumer. At $14.00 per one hundred bunches for No. 1 and

$7.00 per hundred bunches for No. 2, or culls, asparagus is one of the

most profitable of agricultural crops, and even at one-half these prices

it is a much better paying crop than potatoes at 50 cents per bushel.






Pacific Coast methods.--Canning and preserving of asparagus in

California is carried on on as grand a scale as are most other

undertakings. An idea of the extent and importance of this comparatively

new industry may readily be conceived when it is considered that one

establishment alone, The Hickmott Asparagus Canning Co., on Bouldin

Island, in the San Joaquin River, has recently shipped an entire

train-load of canned asparagus from San Francisco to New York. This

train consisted of fifteen freight-cars containing 600 cases each,

making a total of 9,000 cases, averaging forty-eight pounds each, thus

making an actual weight of 432,000 pounds. By far the larger portion of

the yearly asparagus crop in California is canned or preserved in glass,

and in that shape sent to the East, exported to England and the

continent of Europe, and, in fact, to every civilized country of the

world. For canneries where nothing but the white product is put up the

shoots are cut the instant they show their tips above the surface. The

canneries are located as near the fields as possible, the effort being

to get the product in glass or cans before it becomes in any way

withered, the important point being that asparagus is never allowed to

become dried.





The method employed at Bouldin Island, where a crop of 1,500 acres is

canned annually, is to have troughs containing running water in shady

places in the fields. The asparagus, as fast as cut, is brought to these

troughs, and is thoroughly washed. These troughs are just wide enough to

take in the shoots of the proper length for canning, and each piece is

trimmed before being immersed. From the troughs the asparagus is taken

to the sorting table, then on to the scalding vats until it reaches the

fillers, where is completed the systematic handling of this product,

packing it to perfection, nothing remaining except to be labeled, when

it is ready to be forwarded to the markets of the world. The entire

process from the time the stalks are taken from the ground to the time

they are ready for the table consumes less than six hours. The process

throughout is a marvel of cleanliness, particular attention and stress

being laid on every detail connected with it. No bleaching agents or

anything foreign or deleterious whatever is used in the packing of

this plant. In Fig. 39 is seen the interior of one of these canneries,

where the especially constructed solderless cans of the company are

being packed. Everything connected with the growing, harvesting, and

canning is done on Bouldin Island, save only the printing of the labels.

That the operators may be lodged in comfort the company has erected

modern cottages for their employes who have families, besides

well-equipped boarding-houses. The development and growth of this

asparagus cannery is one of the marvels of California. Starting ten

years ago with a rented boiler, under the arched dome of the sky for a

roof, and nothing but the shade of weeping willows for a storehouse, as

seen in the Frontispiece, it has developed into a superb plant, equipped

with all modern appliances. During the active season 1,500 hands are

employed directly and indirectly by the canning company, and the

estimated output for the average season is 150,000 cases. Figs. 40 and

41 present perspective views of some of the asparagus canneries on

Bouldin Island.