Have you ever caught yourself, in the wee hours of the morning, getting stuck on a channel that is airing a show about Area 51 or the latest UFO sighting? Ever since Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, and likely earlier, it seems we have this fascination in what lies beyond the stars. Scientists and astrologists continue to make remarkable discoveries and, not surprisingly, keep us enamored with their theories on wormholes and how to bend time. I, for one, am a huge geek when it comes to anything related to UFOs, aliens, or ghosts, and I have a sneaking suspicion, I’m not alone. So my question to you is this: Do you believe?

Have you ever been awakened in the night, startled by something unexplained? Have you ever had an alien encounter or experienced a UFO sighting? Do you know of someone who has? We would love to share your story with others. Even if you just want to share a favorite television show or article. My new favorites are Destination Truth and Fact or Faked. We’d love for you to leave your story with us here, on our website. Commenting on our site is very simple, so no excuses. Feeling a little bashful? Just send your email to me: carrie@nakedcitywichita.com. I believe. As a believer I will be respectful of your anonymity if you so wish. My fascination is incurable. I’ll be happy to share a few of my stories with you as well.

You go first. ;o)

~xoxo

As a business owner, I do my very best to push local businesses. I brag to others about what a wonderful community of small business owners we have and how we all network to help build one another up. But recently, there seems to be a rash of stone throwing going around. And for what purpose? If this person is so terrible, why have a party in his honor? This establishment obviously feels his name will pull in a crowd. And apparently, they are not confident enough in their own product to put it out there, naked, without the need for mud slinging. That’s for dirty politicians, not small business owners. I don’t know about you all, but for me, a flag of insecurity is being waved proudly above this establishment. And for the record, a smear such as this has lawsuit written all over it. We aren’t talking business to business slams people…this is a business to an individual. Regardless of what happened, we all have a duty as small business owners to keep things professional.

Owning a business in Wichita is a privilege. As business owners, we should be thankful every day that we live in the best country in the world and that we are able to start our own businesses and grow them with our entrepreneurial spirit. We are so fortunate to have a caring community surrounding us. Things are blossoming in Wichita. Let’s build each other up, not tear each other down. Don’t let competition breed hatred. Let it drive us each to create a better business and product for our community.

We have all been on the receiving end of a slam like this, but unless laws were broken, or someone has been raped, tortured or has died, no matter what the circumstances, no one deserves to have their name personally smeared. You never know what is going on in the life of someone on a personal level. I’m asking you to consider this as you continue on with your day. Do the right thing. Make ethical decisions. Do what’s right for your fellow Wichitan. Everything you do and say every day has an effect on others.

I’m looking for a response folks…please tell me I’m not alone on my views of this community. You know…Jared Brickman and I parted ways a while back, but I still tell people RokICT.com has the best calendar of events in town. Looking for the best resource for hip hop? Check out ICTHipHop.com. Are you looking to check out some new, up and coming music? Get out on First Friday…Adam Hartke is doing and incredible job promoting local music. Looking to book a band…we’ve got so many talented folks booking in town…what genre would you like? There’s someone for you. Rise above it folks. Support each other and stop the BS already. There’s room in this sandbox for everyone.

In this hyper-speed, fast paced society, we’re overwhelmed with stimulus on the daily. Bombarded by spam email preaching the next revolution in penile growth, enslaved by our iPhones and Blackberries, inundated by the Billy Mays’ of our lives that tell us we need the latest blanket with sleeves; it’s hard to sift through what’s important . In Wichita, we are certainly not exempt to this modern-day overload phenomenon. Just log onto Facebook and check your events section; pick up your copy of NakedCity and see what’s happening. Until cloning becomes a reality, face it, you’ve got some tough choices to make when it comes to your time.
For Wichita hip hop fans, the internal conflict of where to devote our attention has been a welcome problem in recent times. For years ICT’s urban music scene has been much like an anthill: just a few artists on the surface, but an entire empire building underground. Well, Wichita, the anthill’s been kicked open and it’s time to let the ants have their picnic. An army of talented emcees, singers, musicians, producers, DJs, promoters, and organizations has taking the hip-hop movement in the Midwest by storm.
Those who’ve been along for the revolution will tell you that it’s an overwhelming, empowering experience. Wichita artist FourTre speaks on the recent climate change in the hip-hop scene:
“[It] means the world to me, because, finally, there’s a larger group of people doing the same things I love to do. It’s a great thing to say you’re from the Dub and be able to list off a number of quality artists here. It’s incredible; look at the number of venues hip-hop is playing at! We’re finally able to shake the stigma of violence and negativity that the local scene has been stuck with since the 90s. It’s a great time to be active in the Dub right now and heal those wounds that Wichita’s hip-hop scene has been scarred with.”
His sentiments are shared with scene members and fans alike. There was a time when local hip-hop events were a rarity, a time KaeWun and Twansac were the only hometown names on the radio, and a time when the scene was practically non-existent. Mind you, there are some die-hard veterans who’ve been making music, putting on events, and making contributions in this city for years. The remarkable differences between now and then lie in two things: exposure and unity.
The parallel between exposure and unity in Wichita’s hip-hop scene begs the age-old “chicken or egg” question. There isn’t an exact distinction as to which came first, but most would argue that the exposure sparked the unity. As hip-hop professionals and enthusiasts have become more visible to each other, this great realization of “Hey, I’m not the only one doing this!” has brought people out of the woodwork, creating the most unlikely collaborations and situations.
So what’s responsible for this sudden boom in visibility, exposure, and unity?
Since the beginning of this hip-hop renaissance, media segments like Cash Hollistah’s The Cypher Show—a television and Youtube show featuring Kansas emcees delivering mind-blowing free-verse/freestyle lines—and FourTre’s The Morning Blunt, Youtube segment (one-on-one artist interviews) have made Kansas hip-hop history and gained huge followings. The Kansas DJs have been hugely instrumental in giving local talent a voice: lobbying for artists, earning them nation-wide exposure through mix shows and mix-tapes, spinning them in the clubs, and providing connections, resources, and opportunities.
Thanks to increasing respect and demand from venues, club performances and concert series have arguably made some of the biggest impact locally. Former clubs like Groove and Everest, and Club Bedz are just a few that have housed some memorable local artist events. These events have been central gatherings for all kinds of
creative minds and fans, and have earned an eclectic following.
With an incredible amount of accomplishment and support in the scene, it’s impossible to touch on everything that’s come to fruition within the last year or so alone, but it’s safe to say that what we’re dealing with here is a unique and special moment in Wichita’s history. Emcees, singers, producers, and musicians have stepped out of the shadows, fueled with what could be argued as an unprecedented sense of hope and hunger. Support for the movement is growing, and the dedication is deep. One thing is certainly clear: Wichita hip-hop is one of those things you’re about to be inundated with, and it’s one stimulus you need to experience.

photo >KARL LAMBERTE

How would you describe this film to someone who has not seen it or is not familiar with Gooding?
One guy told me, “It’s like David Lynch meets True Blood.”  I probably would tell people that it’s [a] long form music video for the rock band Gooding and then leave it at that… I know it’s a weird little film, and I accept that people are either going to like it or hate it. I have said to some people, “Michael Jackson had Thriller, Lady Gaga has Telephone, and now Gooding has No One Gets Out Alive.”  (Sorry, Gooding doesn’t dance as well as MJ or Gaga by the way.)
How did this project start? Did you have a vision and then Gooding came along, or did Gooding approach you before you developed the concept?
I’m an extremely close friend of Gooding, and he always sends me the rough tracks of songs for his upcoming albums/CDs.  And I was definitely a huge fan of the song No One Gets Out Alive from the beginning and pushed for it to be on the album. Anyway, I was out visiting Gooding last fall in L.A. and he asked me to do a music video for one of the songs off his new album, The Return.  At first I told him I didn’t think I would have time because I was planning on starting production on my first feature film… [but] my feature film was a vampire film, and I always said the lyrics to No One Gets Out Alive would fit well with [it]; and I could always see the song being used during the closing credits. So, Gooding said, “You’re doing No One Gets Out Alive, because you’re the one that fought for that song.”  So, some of the elements from my feature film script worked their way into Gooding: No One Gets Out Alive.”
Where was this filmed and how long did it take?
All of this was shot in Wichita.  We shot [it] in my bedroom, my living room, my Mom’s house, and a large chunk of it was shot in an old elementary school. And we shot on some random streets around Wichita also.
We started shooting in February and wrapped in June… we did a lot of shooting for just 16 minutes.
Were there any unseen complications?
In filmmaking there’s always unseen complications.  We blew breakers, set off fire alarms, had security guards run us off, [had] people on the set butting heads, but you always have to take it in stride and just move forward. The final film is always the goal and (as the director) you have to find a way to keep it together and get this sometimes-dysfunctional family to the finish line. It’s a gigantic juggling act, and as Rod Pocowatchit has said, “Filmmaking is not
for wimps.”
The actors you had in this were amazing. How did you find them?
Rod Pocowatchit is a very close friend of mine and I’ve had small parts in most of his films, including his zombie film, The Dead Can’t Dance, in which I played the lead zombie. Rod actually play[ed] 3 roles in my film; he plays Cowboy, one of the Reds (the red masked guys), and one of the Whites (the white robed guys with the half-
red masks).
Besides Rod, the two main stars in this film are Casondra Twitchell and Ryan Johnson. I met them on the set of The Dead Can’t Dance. They were zombie extras and we got to talking. They had said to me that they were interested in acting in any of my upcoming film projects. I’m big on “getting a vibe” off of people and Ryan and Casondra seemed so sincerely nice and humble…. I was instantly drawn to them (plus they are engaged to each other in real life, so that helps in their “chemistry” on screen).  So, when it came time for me to start thinking about the concept of the film… I thought of Casondra and Ryan. I was a little nervous because I didn’t know them at all and they could have turned out to be flaky or just crazy, but they turned out to be so awesome, hard working, and fun to be around, which is why I’m writing another feature length script based around the two of them as the leads.
Ryan also play[ed] 3 characters in this film. He’s the guy in bed with Casondra at the beginning, one of the Whites, and one of the Reds (the one with the sweet dance moves, by the way).
The 3 of them almost covered all the roles, and they were so awesome throughout all my crazy ideas and costumes. We did use Jamie Sumner, an old friend of Gooding, and Jesse as the “Large White” that carries Gooding. He was awesome and a very good sport, considering I had him dress in hot white plastic and carry Gooding all over the place.  And my bother El stepped in as one of the Whites during the Gooding stage performance.
Do you anticipate working with Gooding in the
future and if so then any ideas on what?
I have done the art and design for 15 of Gooding’s albums/CDs, including posters, logos, shirts, etc. So, we have been working together a long time, and will continue to for a long time. We have spent many hours talking and fantasizing about life and artistic endeavors. He’s like a brother to me and I always look forward to seeing what he and the guys in his band come up with next.
To view behind-the-scenes video, visit

http://www.nakedcity.tv.

To view additional photos and some of the storyboards, visit http://www.artbrutfilm.com.

What does it mean to be voracious listener of music? Is it a constant exploration into the future and past, a sense of urgency to know and understand every small nuance of what drove the artist to create and assimilate tones and melodies, or is it just a way for a teenage boy to find something to talk about with girls? It can be some of those things for most people, but for Jedd Beaudoin that would probably just be scratching the surface.
Jedd is one of the busiest and musically well-read guys in Wichita that I know. He moved here from the upper Midwest in August of 1998 in order to get his MFA in Creative Writing. 12 years later, Jedd is an English Comp instructor at BCCC, getting his masters in Public History, host of Wichita Sessions on KPTS, and most importantly is employed at KMUW 89.1 as host and producer of the newly expanded Strange Currency.
From early on in his life, Jedd was more than just a fan of music; it was something that consumed him and helped in his early development:
“I can remember being 4 years old and having my brother show me how to use his record player. I would just sit there for hours and listen to music while he was at work. I even started to lean how to read by memorizing album labels and song lists.”
With that seed planted early on in his life, Jedd would work tirelessly to find music and people with common tastes to help explore his passion, from befriending the guy in high school with a Slayer patch to understanding that a group of guys in upper Michigan could put out a record on their own and have it played on the radio. He came to the understanding that there are artists from all around that people don’t have to rely upon mainstream avenues to discover:
“Local music is important and shedding a light on that is important, [in order] to let people know… what great bands Wichita has and that they are rubbing elbows with some extremely talented people.”
Jedd’s show Strange Currency is based around the idea of music as a passport, the kind of thing that can help you find commonalities with other people, start friendships, or give you something to talk about with that one gal you like. Jedd hopes to treat his show (which airs nightly on KMUW 89.1 FM from 10pm – midnight) like an evening in his living room: the kind of thing where one song or album will trigger another memory, and so on, as well as highlighting new national and local talent.
Jedd grew up in love with radio, and his show is definitely filling a long-empty void in Wichita’s radio market. Strange Currency is something that people can bend their ear to and end up transported back in time, while their eyes remain fixed upon innovative pieces of the future.

The collective American culture has a terrible intimidation that needs to be publicly addressed. It lurks in a glass bottle, takes several years to come to fruition, and means the difference between a mediocre meal and an exceptional one. How did we manage to develop a fear of wine?
Maybe it’s the unpronounceable names on those French bottles of Côtes du Rhône or the vernacular that includes words like “terroir” and “oenology.” Maybe it’s the idea that wine lovers are pompous snobs who like to throw their useless knowledge in your layperson face.
What the hell is kirsch, and how do we know if we smell it? And why do we need to smell it anyway if we’re drinking it? It’s human nature to fear the unknown, and wine in the U.S. has only become a respectable industry within the last thirty or so years. Who can blame us?
Relax. Wine need not be complicated. It is not for the wealthy elite to enjoy; it is for everyone, even Hannibal Lecter. Here are a few simple tips for ordering wine in a restaurant:
1. If you want to drink a glass with your rib-eye or rainbow trout and don’t know what to order, describe the qualities you like in a wine to your server and ask for a suggestion. I don’t mean something contrived like, “I’m looking for notes of chalk with a long finish of pencil lead and charred leather,” but really think about what makes you sit up a little straighter. Do you like a lot of fruit? Try a Merlot or red Zinfandel. Do you like a dry finish? Try a Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc. Are you more turned on by spice or chocolate? A Syrah (or Shiraz, if it’s from Australia) might do the trick. Do you like sweet or light flavors? Rieslings and Gewürtztraminers are quite sweet, and Pinot Gris (or Pinot Grigio if it’s Italian) is incredibly light and crisp. Most varietals have several distinct characteristics that make choosing your favorites a little easier.
2. If you’re ordering a bottle, your server will show you the label before opening it. Check to make sure it is in fact what you’ve ordered. When smelling and tasting the wine, you’re looking for spoilage, not deciding if you like it. Every once in a while a bottle will oxidize and go bad due to improper sealing or storage. A “corked” wine will often smell like vinegar or mold, and taste musty or sour. Don’t be afraid to send back a corked bottle. It doesn’t happen frequently, but if you’ve picked a doozy the restaurant should have no problem replacing it. Do not, however, send back a bottle just because you’ve decided you don’t like the way it tastes.
3. Finally, all this noise about food pairings can go right out the window. Liver, fava beans, and a nice Chianti all taste marvelous together, I’m sure. But if you don’t like red wine—or liver and beans for that matter—it will all taste like poo. I can’t stand goat cheese and no pairing of Sauvignon Blanc will convince me otherwise. Give me a juicy, herby glass of Malbec, however, and I might eat anything. Simply enough: if you like it, drink it. Easy, right?

photo > DARRIN HACKNEY

Greg and Annette Helms were working in the real estate/mortgage industry in California until the bottom fell out of the economy and they started looking for other opportunities. They considered franchises and other businesses in California until one day Greg was perusing Craig’s List and found that Ty’s Diner was up for sale. So the Helms’s drove to Wichita, checked the place out, and bought it.
Greg lived in Wichita until 1989 and is a North High grad; therefore, it’s not surprising that he’d want to “come home” because as Helms says, “Wichita is a city that tries.” Other than a brief stint working at the old Suzy Q’s and Angelo’s, Helms has never been in the restaurant business. Then why did he buy Ty’s? “Part of the reason is Ty’s has been here for a long time and it’s kind of like a franchise without the royalty fees,” says Helms. “But it was two things: Ty’s has a lot of history in Wichita and in my opinion every town has it’s own ‘Ty’s Diner.’ And in my mind, Ty’s was always that kind of place. So it seemed like a good opportunity, but not only that, we purchased the real estate around it.”
I asked Helms to tell me about the history of Ty’s, since every time I ask someone about the place they just tell me how great the burgers are. “Ty’s was founded by Kenny Tyson in either 1952 or 1953. At the time it was initially a bar with an attached liquor store. So he bought a small grill and from what I understand he had a little electric fryer, so when you came to Ty’s you’d have to wait 30 or 40 minutes just to get a hamburger and fries,” says Helms. And Helms continues, “Ty would come in at 2:30 in the morning and hand cut the fries and the meat would be delivered fresh everyday. We’re just taking what he started and continuing that tradition.” Helms says that he and his wife are the fifth owners of the restaurant, which he jokes, “changes hands about every 10-12 years.”
Helms says that he and his wife have made only a few changes, all of which were necessary. The building now has a new roof, so when it rains water doesn’t come pouring in through the holes; they installed a new air conditioning system, fixed the vent hood, and installed new carpet and some new booths.
Given Ty’s reputation as having what some consider the best burger in town, I asked Helms what the secret is to a great burger. “The secret to a great burger,” says Helms, “is lean, quality ground beef that’s always fresh and never frozen and cooked on a good old grill that just makes it taste right.” Helms adds that part of the problem with other places is that they make burgers too complicated. “It’s just like anything else, if you have good, quality ingredients and you have a good recipe, it’ll turn out real well.”
Ty’s Diner is located at 928 W. Second.

Myth—what we have come to know as the mysteries of the universe explained by primitive minds in allegories rich with supernatural beings, or what the ancients knew as “stupid crap pulled off by naked, drunken people a long time ago.” Consider these legendary screw-ups:
Leda, a rich princess and epic partier, had sex with a bird, only to wake up the next morning and discover that the bird was really the god Zeus in disguise. This is how you know it is a myth, because, in the real world, if you got drunk enough to have sex with a bird, you would just have to wake up the next morning and face the fact that you’d had sex with a bird.
Then there was Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to Man, which is what people of both sexes were called in those days (and in the 60s). Man immediately set fire to everything, including the Elysian Fields, where the gods grew their weed. They punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle drop by daily to pluck out his liver. This originated the phrase still commonly heard among drinkers: “Man, that hangover was Promethean.” The gods fixed it so that his liver would immediately grow back, which makes this a hopeful myth for alcoholics, except for the part where the eagle returns the next day and eats it again. But, you know, you can get used to anything.
We owe some of our cherished brand names and traditions to ancient screw-ups. The Trojans were stupid enough to bring a big Greek-stuffed horse inside of the gates of Troy. So as a punishment the gods named a condom after them. Which is fine, because I think going to the 7-Eleven and asking for a Greek to wear on your thing could be highly offensive. Whereas, are you going to worry about whether or not a Trojan is standing in line behind you?
In any case, we should have left myth to the people who knew how to handle it, because we’re about to be up to our Trojans in mythical half-human-half-animal creatures. Before I explain, I must apologize to Sen. Sam Brownback. You see, in 2007 he proposed visionary legislation that would have made it illegal to genetically combine humans and animals. This drew yowls of laughter from both sides of Congress, human and animal. But now the senator has had the last laugh of a man crossed with a hyena. His proposal threatened to crowd out his other entries in the “idiotic” column I had been updating for him, and so it was immediately upgraded to “insane.” But now I find that I have to eat crow and move it again to “inevitable.”  And because of the small-minded skepticism of which I have been a part, I may have to eat a crow that looks even more like my Uncle Phil than crows already do. We need to recognize that the senator’s heroic, patriotic waste of taxpayer money could protect us from irresponsible godless science that would almost certainly result in bizarre genetic cross-breeds like centaurs, minotaurs, satyrs, Joe Lieberman, and credit default swaps.
The controversy started about 15 years ago when some geniuses grew a human ear on the back of a mouse. I heard this on NPR, so don’t even argue with me. (Caution: do NOT Google images for “earmouse” or you will gag convulsively several times and then feel compelled to post the earmouse on your Facebook page. This happened to me.) Attention scientists: If you want to get people on your side, and to possibly start dating you, invent something a little more socially acceptable and useful than schlepping a giant ear on the back of a poor little hairless mouse. Come on, it looks like something Microsoft would come up with to counter the iPod. Maybe you should try creating a turtle that can sing all the local movie listings to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama, or a cow with four really firm breasts.
Let’s face it: this human-animal hookup, it’s going to happen. I just saw the movie Splice and it was horrifying. Five bucks for a soda! And then there was the movie—scientists with bad hair join human and animal DNA in a monstrous, unholy union to create a teenager. And that’s really about it. A more terrifying transformation has taken place at my house. Not from genetic splicing, exactly, but from having so lavished human privileges upon my two dogs that they have evolved the characteristics of 30-year-old grad students who still live at home. About the trillionth time the TiVo was mysteriously changed from Law & Order to Animal Planet Investigates, I said, “What, do you guys think you’re humans?” The little one, who is, as best as I can tell, a cross between a mouse and a rhinoceros, finished his omelet, lit a cigarette and said, “You make that sound like a step up.” This is the kind of treatment we can expect a lot more often when animals are further endowed with human physiology. We’re halfway there, anyway. Most men already have no qualms whatsoever about scratching in public or going to the bathroom in the backyard.
Fortunately, human-animal combination will give us the answers that were buried along with the Age of Myth. For example, I have always wondered, what does a centaur do with his hands? He can’t just stand around with his arms crossed all the time. I mean… that would look weird. Not wearing pants must take some getting used to. Of course, centaurs are guys, and they probably figure, “Hey, you’re part horse, people deserve to know which part.” The Kentucky Derby, being raced by centaurs, will be infinitely more interesting. Will the guy part of the centaur wear the little jockey outfit? Will he whip the horse part? (“I knew I had to whip my ass or I’d never catch Zeus-Is-a-Goose in the final turn.”) And, what’s it like to poop standing up? If we had just let Sen. Brownback have his way, we’d never have to find out.
In this brave new world we’ll no longer ponder the timeless question that has troubled philosophers since Acidophilus the Elder: “If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?” We’ll finally know what happens when you splice a Republican with a Democrat. (Will we be overrun by self-loathing Libertarians sporting Armed & Liberal bumper stickers?) And at last we’ll have the answer to “What do you get when you splice a hockey mom with a pit bull?” Actually, I think we all know that punch line. Cougar.

Preserving food is something humans have done since the dawn of time. Prehistoric peoples developed methods like smoking and salting in order to preserve their meats. Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were able to keep their Figs and Olives from spoiling by drying them in the hot sun or storing them in olive oil. Europeans used Yeast and Fungi a thousand years ago to make foods, like Cheese and Wine, which would “keep” for long periods of time. However, it was only a few hundred years ago that a Frenchman named Nicolas Appert discovered how to keep fresh fruits and vegetables from spoiling for long periods of time.
Napoleon Bonaparte found that waging war during the winter months was a difficult endeavor due to the lack of food for his troops. He was quoted as saying, “An army marches on its stomach.” In 1795 Napoleon along with the French Government offered 12,000 francs to anyone that could develop a way to preserve food for the Army and Navy. A French winemaker named Nicolas Appert took up the challenge. He believed that he would be able to preserve food in bottles with corks, covered in wax as he did with his wine. For 14 years he experimented with various methods. After many trials he found that if the bottles of food were submerged in hot water for a few hours the air would be pushed out of the bottle and a vacuum would be made—somehow preserving the food. In 1810 Nicolas Appert received the 12,000 franc prize after sending Napoleon and his troops bottles of Partridges, Gravy, and Vegetables. He reportedly said, “Every one of which retained its freshness, and not a single substance had undergone the least change at sea.” Nicolas Appert never knew exactly why corked bottles that were heated preserved their contents and he died in 1841, 20 years before Louis Pasteur, biologist and the “Father of Micro-Biology,” discovered microbes.
As Pasteur was discovering the microbe, American tinsmith John L. Mason was inventing the style of glass jars that we use for canning today. Mason’s jars had a threaded top that fit a screw-on lid, which made the seal tighter and much more sturdy. This new design was better able to keep bacteria out of the food, making home-canning much safer. Because of this new design, Appert’s corked and waxed bottles became a thing of the past.
In America the rush West followed by the Civil War, and later WWI, dramatically increased the popularity of “canned” foods. By WWII 20 million Americans were growing “Victory Gardens” and canning their crops to help with the war effort. Victory Gardens planted in flowerbeds, backyards, and rooftops accounted for over 1/3rd of the produce in America by the early 1940s.
With the explosion of refrigeration, faster, more efficient transportation, and the advent of chain grocery stores, home-canning became less and less popular. Many Americans chose the quicker and easier method of going to their corner market to find what they needed.
Throughout the years, a handful of people have been able to keep the art of canning alive. Many of us can remember our parents or grandparents boiling jars in the kitchen on summer days. Their pantries would be filled with mason jars containing fresh Green Beans, Tomatoes, Peach jelly, or Pickles. Or maybe you remember the sound that the lid of a mason jar made as it popped open at Thanksgiving, releasing the sweet smell of a summertime garden.
With the rise of gas prices, increased awareness of current food production practices, and society’s general move toward a more healthy and natural lifestyle, home-canning has once again seen a surge in popularity.
Although food preservation has been around for tens of thousands of years, it is only recently that we have developed methods to keep fresh food fresh for long periods of time. Originally developed to feed armies during battle, canned foods are now used to provide a healthy, inexpensive, and more fulfilling life for many families.
Interesting Fact: The Can Opener was invented 30 years after the Can.