It’s hot. It’s steamy, and — on this Wednesday in August — it smells strongly of sweet cooked apples seasoned with warm, spicy cinnamon.
Standing at a table surrounded by oversized gleaming stainless-steel kettles, ladles, pots and pans, Eric Rorabaugh and Gladys Havens peel and slice a pile of raw fruit that’s contributing to the morning’s aroma.
Nearby, Ronnie and Sara Grubb add sugar and spices, stir the mixture and fill up glass jars with scoops of homemade pie filling.
For decades now, similar scenes have played out inside the Wythe County Cannery in Wytheville.
Housed inside the Wythe County Technology Center, where high school students also learn about law enforcement and cosmetology, the operation allows homesteaders, farmers, gardeners, church congregations and community members to put up and preserve everything from beets and bear meat to soups and salsa.
A Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources officer who picked up jellymaking from his grandmother, Rorabaugh has been processing apple butter, pumpkin butter, green beans, spaghetti sauce and deer meat for about five years.
“I like having a garden, and I like having it [the harvest] for the winter,” he said.
While he has equipment at home and makes his own jelly there, he said the cannery’s larger-scale tools make it more convenient to make bigger batches.
Open from July through December, the cannery serves 800 to 1,200 people each year — some from as far away as Kentucky and North Carolina, according to technology center Principal Summer Stone.
Neighboring Carroll and Bland counties also have community canneries where friends and neighbors share recipes and knowledge.
Wythe County canning operations were interrupted last fall after the boiler, which powers the giant pressure cookers and other machinery, failed.
In February, the Wythe County Board of Supervisors approved buying a new boiler with help from a $50,000 state grant, and the cannery reopened on July 27, just in time for this year’s harvest.
“The reopening … is welcome news for the many families, farmers and community organizations who rely on this valuable resource each year,” Board Chairman James D. Smith said in a news release. “We appreciate the partnership at the state and local level that made this project possible and are pleased to restore this important service to our community in time for the harvest season.”
Stone and Wythe County Schools Superintendent Russell Street said officials fielded many phone calls and emails from concerned customers when the cannery was out of commission.
“I think it’s just a tradition that’s still being passed down,” Street said. “It’s a big deal for the community.”
“I just think it’s a staple in the community,” Stone said. “It’s a way of life.”
A self-described “farmer’s wife,” Dianne Stephens has been using the cannery’s cookers, kettles and sterilizers for more than 50 years. As a child, she went there with her mother.
She’s also taught classes inside and, when the boiler died, advocated publicly for its replacement.
“Last year, when the boiler failed in September, it was devastating to all of us,” she said.
Stephens, who lives in Wytheville, said her “she shed” is lined with some of the 500 to 700 quarts of salsa, tomatoes, vegetable beef soup and green beans she prepares annually.
She uses some at her own table and gives some away.
“I’m always ready to share,” she said. “Who wouldn’t enjoy getting that?”
Along with deriving satisfaction from preserving their own produce, cannery users like knowing exactly what’s in the finished product they consume.
“Everyone that comes in here — they know what’s in their food, and that’s what they want,” cannery worker Sara Grubb said.
“When you’ve got your own, you know what you’re eating,” added local farmer Kenny Williams, who’s been relying on the cannery since the 1990s.
In addition to canning pinto beans, tomato juice, turkey soup and more, Williams processes and preserves the hogs he raises.
“I think it’s got a whole lot better taste,” he said.
“We know what’s in it,” added Ronnie Grubb, a former dairy farmer who also works at the cannery. He and his wife, Sara, also make their own goodies, including corn, potatoes and “about anything you can put in a can,” Sara Grubb said.
The Grubbs help customers operate the equipment, process their produce and — for a fee — provide any needed supplies such as jars, lids and metal cans. Individuals also pay a small fee to use the setup.
“The goal of it is to make sure it’s affordable,” Stone said.
Whether it’s extending the shelf life of fresh corn on the cob or venison, the canning process is essentially the same.
Cecil Sink, a retired Virginia Department of Health employee who also teaches canning classes, said, “Heating water under pressure allows the water and steam inside the pressurized vessel (can or jar) to rise to over the sea-level boiling point.”
The process destroys potentially harmful micro-organisms, which prevents spoilage, according to Sink.
“As long as it stays sealed, it’ll keep,” Stephens said.
For more information on the cannery, visit wctc.wythe.k12.va.us. To schedule an appointment, call 276-228-3421.
