As the coronavirus pandemic stretched into spring, then summer, many Americans turned to home gardening. It’s a perfect pandemic hobby—soothing, tactile, a way to get outside when many public spaces are closed. Plus, for the large numbers of people facing unemployment or underemployment, growing food can feel like a bulwark against hunger. By March, when cities began implementing lockdown orders, Google searches for “growing vegetables from scraps” were up 4,650 percent from the previous year. By later in the spring, seed sellers were reporting soaring sales—the venerable W. Atlee Burpee & Co seed company saw its biggest sales season in its 144-year history.
Now, as gardeners find themselves with bumper crops of fruits and veggies, another time-tested hobby is gaining new followers: home canning.
“I have definitely noticed an uptick in canning interest during the pandemic,” says Marisa McClellan, the canning expert behind the website Food in Jars and author of several canning cookbooks. “Traffic is up on my site, I’m getting more canning questions, and there’s a shortage of both mason jars and lids.”
Indeed, stores across America are reporting canning supply backorders that won’t be filled for months.
Which brings us to the subject of our story, that American icon, the darling of canners and crafters alike, the mason jar. When you put up a batch of dill pickles or a blackberry compote, you’re using a technology that’s been around for more than 160 years.
It all started with John Landis Mason, a New Jersey-born tinsmith who, in the 1850s, was searching for a way to improve the relatively recent process of home canning. Up until then, home canning involved using wax to create an airtight seal above food. Jars were stoppered with corks, sealed with wax, then boiled. It was messy, and hardly foolproof. Before canning, people in cold climates relied largely on smoking, salting, drying and fermenting to keep themselves fed through winter.
