The Gilmer County Cannery is open for its 2022 season.
Located on the campus of Clear Creek Middle School at the Clear Creek Agricultural Education Center, the cannery welcomes customers to bring their fruits and vegetables to the facility for processing. It will be open Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8 a.m.-2 p.m., through Dec. 16. All produce must arrive at the cannery by 10:30 a.m. to allow enough time for processing.
“Tuesdays and Thursdays are the same as they used to be. People can just walk in. If there are folks who have a large amount or want a little more space, we’ll schedule them on Wednesday,” said Mike Bushey, Young Farmer teacher.
Cannery customers are responsible for providing all ingredients for canning. The cannery does not provide salt or any other canning ingredients, although basic supplies like spoons, pots and pans are available for use.
The charge for metal cans provided by the cannery is slightly higher this year, Bushey noted.
“The price of cans went up a little bit, but that’s just the nature of the beast right now. Most folks bring their own jars (to can with),” he added.
All products processed at the facility must be for home use, not commercial purposes. Bushey said the cannery staff encourages customers to do as much prep work as possible at home before coming to the canning plant.
“We’ve been doing a lot of green beans, and tomatoes are starting to come in right now,” Bushey said. “It’s been pretty steady, and we’re pretty normal volume-wise.”
Longtime customer Shirley Suddeth, 78, said she’s been coming to different locations of the local cannery since she was a little girl. She and husband, Otis, were busy canning their homegrown “cornfield” green beans there this week.
“I’ve been coming to the cannery for 70 years. I come here every year,” said Suddeth. “There were nine children in our family. My dad picked me to come to the cannery when I was 8 years old. That was back when it was down on the river, down below where the police department is now. There were some older women who came along beside me and said, ‘This is the way you do it.’ (Now), I tell some of the young people about it, that they need to come to the cannery.”
Bushey said the locally-grown produce being brought to the cannery this summer is looking good so far, despite a general lack of steady rainfall.
“The gardens are looking pretty decent,” he added. “Folks who aren’t able to water any, some of them have gotten lucky and got a shower (here and there) to get them through. Some folks may have lost some beans and other things because there was a pretty good stretch there for a while where there wasn’t much rain at all.”