LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - JULY 16, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio Last week I was able to buy some peas at the LeRoy Farmers Market. I took them home and started shelling - taking the pods, squeezing the end and then pulling the peas out with my thumb. I remember watching my grandmother shelling peas, sitting on the side porch with a huge white enamel dish pan. I have no idea where she got the peas. Perhaps she grew them in her small garden out behind the barn. Peas are usually planted in the early spring, as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Around here, that’s in April. It is said that if there’s a light snow after the peas are planted that the snow is a good “fertilizer.” I’ve read that’s because the snow captures nitrogen which is good for the pea plants. In LeRoy, farmers planted fields of peas which were processed at the canning factory on North Avenue. It was founded in 1909 as the LeRoy Canning Company and continued until 1939 when it became the Haxton Canning Company. Many folks from LeRoy worked there. It processed vegetables under a variety of labels including Royal Castle, LeRoy, Genesee, Primo, Ka Ko, Diploma, Queen Quality, and Korn Cream. A rare empty can with a paper label was donated to the Historical Society several years ago. Some people remember that there were old paper labels blowing around after the factory closed. Peas have to be picked when the sugar content is the highest and the men who operated the huge pea combines often worked 24 hours a day to get the peas in. Who can forget listening to the huge combines going by on their way to the next farm. There were many roads that had the name of “pea vine corners” where the vines would fall off the trucks and folks would run and grab them and take them home. William Brown, in his book Le Roy Tales writes: “One activity that I will always remember is watching for the trucks taking harvested vines with pea pods to the canning factory in Le Roy. These trucks were so overloaded they would often lose a bunch of vines with their clinging pea pods. As soon as a truck would lose a bunch of vines, I would rush into the roadway, seize the vines and rush back to the lawn where I would have a feast breaking open the pods and using my front teeth to swipe those delicious sweet peas into my mouth. If you have never experienced this in your lifetime, you indeed have missed something.” Canning peas isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of factors; first, you need to know a bit about the history of canning. In 1810, French chef Nicolas Francois Appert collected a prize from Napoleon for preserving food in glass jars sealed with cork, wire, wax. Napoleon was looking for a way to preserve food for his soldiers and although Appert discovered how to preserve food, the glass jars were expensive and not many soldiers benefitted from his discovery. The first can appeared in America in 1825 but canned food doesn’t become commercially possible until Gail Borden’s condensed milk in 1856. When the Civil War broke out, the demand for canned food increased exponentially. Interestingly, the introduction of a usable can opener didn’t appear until 1860, and it was not until the 1920s that a really good can opener became available. Secondly, another issue was spoilage. Food has to be processed at a high temperature. It wasn’t until 1863 when Louis Pasteur discovered the process of pasteurization that some of the issues were solved. So, what about home canning? Well, that’s another history lesson. Home canning is done in glass jars and the story of glass Mason jars and lids would take up another page. Peas are a low acid vegetable. They cannot be processed in a hot water bath. They must be processed in a pressure cooker, and that is why many people did not can peas at home. But they did freeze peas - - another long story about blanching and flash freezing and Clarence Birdseye and his work in the 1920s and ‘30s. (To be honest, I prefer frozen peas and really don’t like canned peas). Inventions that made industrial canning possible included the “podding machine” which was invented in France by Madame Fauve in 1883. It was in use in the United States by 1889. A “vining” machine was introduced in 1893. Eventually, the two machines were combined. Several people in Le Roy remember the stories of the canning factory on North Avenue.. “I remember the canning factory of the 60s. My mom hated having to time hanging out her wash as it didn’t get fallout when they threw new coal on the fires.” “We had moms who worked there to support a growing family. My mom’s hands during tomato season were bloody and rashed.” “Some of the cement pads of the buildings are still there.Theofficebuildingwas thefirst base for the LeRoy Volunteer Ambulance.” “The peas didn’t just fall off the trucks. Larcenous boys would pull them off at the stop signs. North Street was interesting for its smells: Jell-O, Goff’s Salt Water Taffy, the railroads and the canning factory.” “The trucks would go down LathropAvenue and the canning factory was at the end of our street. We loved grabbing peas but really didn’t like the smell of rotting tomato juice all the way down the street there.” “I remember the pea factory that we passed on the way to Godfrey’s Pond. It was known as ‘pea viners corner’ and boy did it stink. A couple of people remember that they went to the factory and picked up pea vines to feed their cows.” “I grew up on the corner of 237 and Morganville Road. I loved pea season and tried to find anyway to make the trucks headed north to Pea Viners Corners to drop some of the vines. One year, I think Murray Call lost about three of his dad’s rakes trying to ride his bike next to the truck and pull the vines off. Good times and I still love eating raw peas out of their pods.” “They would sit outside in the evening, shuck them and eat half of them raw and freeze the rest.” Well, I ate all the peas raw. I was going to save a few and throw them in a salad, but didn’t and now pea season is gone. I guess I’ll have to settle for some Birds Eye frozen peas and leave the canned peas to those folks who like them. Shelling Peas
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ2MjM=