The cold-water method can be used effectively in putting up rhubarb, green gooseberries, and a few other sour berry fruits.  The process is simple.  The fruit is first prepared and washed and then blanched, and finally packed practically raw in containers, which are next filled with cold water and then sealed.  Some sour fruits packed in this way will keep indefinitely.

A serviceable outfit may be made of materials found in any household.  All that is necessary is a vessel to hold the jars or cans—­such as a wash boiler or a large tin pail.  This should have a tight-fitting cover.  Provide a false bottom of wood or a wire rack to allow for free circulation of water under the containers.

While suburban gardeners with large surplus of vegetables find it desirable to use tin cans, being more easily handled for commercial purposes, most of us find glass jars the more satisfactory and economical containers for canned vegetables and fruits.  This is especially true when there is a shortage of tin cans.  All types of jars that seal perfectly may be used.  Use may be made of those to which one is accustomed or which may be already on hand.  The rubbers must be sound but the glass jars may be used indefinitely.  Glass jars are adapted for use in any of the cold-pack canning outfits.  Be sure that no jar is defective.

For use in the storing of products which are already sterilized, such as jellies, jams, and preserves, and the bottling of fruit juices, housewives may practice effective thrift by saving all jars in which they receive dried beef, bacon, peanut butter, and other products and bottles that have contained olives, catsup, and kindred goods.

Blanching is important with most vegetables and many fruits.  It consists of plunging them into boiling water for a short time.  Spinach and other greens should be blanched in steam.  To do this, place them in an ordinary steamer or suspend them in a tightly closed vessel above an inch or two of boiling water.

Blanching should be followed by the cold dip, plunging into cold water after removal from the hot water.  Cold dipping hardens the pulp and preserves the original color, enhancing the appearance.  Blanching cleanses the articles and removes excess acids and strong flavors and odors.  It also causes shrinkage, so that a larger quantity may be packed in a container.  After blanching and cold dipping, surface moisture should be removed by placing the vegetables or fruits between two towels or by exposure to the sun.

All this is so simple and the directions so easily followed that the average 12-year-old may successfully can vegetables or fruits.  The steps and the precautions are: 

1.  Select sound vegetables and fruits. (If possible can them the same day they are picked.) Wash, clean, and prepare them.

2.  Have ready, on the stove, a can or pail of boiling water.

3.  Place the vegetables or fruits in cheesecloth, or in some other porous receptacle—­a wire basket is excellent—­for dipping and blanching them in the boiling water.