Canning
It’s something that runs in the Hammond family
A lover of the kitcher, Mrs. Myrtice
Hammond of High Falls road has been
canning for 55 years and enjoying every
minute of it.
“As far as I can remember my family
have always canned,” she said. She
remembers helping her mother when
she was 12 years old.
She is 78 now and still gets up before
breakfast to can.
The vegetables Mrs. Hammond uses
come from the garden at her home. Her
son, Jack, takes care of it. He is the
third generation of farmers in the
Hammond family.
Jack’s wife, Shirley, helps Mrs.
Hammond with the canning.
“Jack does the gardening until it is
time for gathering, then he turns it over
to us,” she said.
The recent drought has definitely
affected their crops. She recalls 3 years
ago when there were too many crops for
her to can all of them and she had to
give some away.
“This year there is no reserve,” she
said. The family is still eating
vegetables from 3 years ago.
The vegetables she has canned this
summer have been beans, peas,
tomatoes, squash, and cucumber.
Even though many of the vegetables
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Ray Chatfield (r) shows John Jones of the City Light and Water Dept, how the
remote radio switch operates.
Little box
can cut big
• Are you tired of those spiraling
electric bills? Would you like to do
something about it that would save you
and your neighbors some money?
You can by signing up for the city’s
new load management program. . . if
you own a central air conditioner, that
’ is.
The City of Griffin is hoping that 2,000
of its electric customers, who have
, either homes of businesses cooled with
central air units, will agree to par
ticipate in the program.
The city is expecting to save some
$158,000 on its wholesale electric costs
next year and will pass the savings on
to all electric users.
• Monday at a noon luncheon at
Holiday Inn, the program was ex
plained by Clifford Hutson, head of the
• electric department; John Jones, also a
city employe; and Ray Chatsfield,
representing Fisher-Pierce, the
company whose equipment the city is
purchasing. Among those present were
city and county commissioners, civic
club presidents and other leaders.
Hutson explained that the city has
about 10,830 electric consumers, in
cluding approximately 2,100 residential
customers with central air and about
500 commercial customers which have
approximately 600 to 700 units available
• for control.
The city will install, at no cost to the
DAILY^NEWS
Daily Since 1872
didn’t produce, this has been the best
squash crop ever for the Hammonds.
She usually has egg plant, corn and
pimento.
The little rain has helped the bean
crop.
“I don’t think it helped the tomatoes
or cucumbers," she said.
The family has been freezing more
this year because of the hot weather
and additional freezers. Mrs. Ham
mond has frozen some of the vegetables
and most of the fruit.
She recalls that when she was
younger, the only type of food
preservation was canning. There was
no freezing. Mrs. Hammond added that
the pressure cooker has helped lots. She
and her daughter-in-law uses two large
cookers.
Mrs. Hammond classifies her process
of canning as a simple one. She begins
by getting everything ready. (Using
beans for an example)
This includes sterilizing the jars and
caps and blanching the food. She then
puts the beans in a pan of water and lets
them come to a boil.
The next step is to put the beans in
sterilized jars. She then transfers the
jars and water from the previous pan
used for boiling into the pressure
owner, remote controlled radio switch
es on the thermostat circuits of 2,000
units. Most of the time the switches will
do nothing and the air conditioners will
operate as before.
However, for a few days each year
when the city approaches its annual
peak electric use, monitoring equip
ment to be installed at the electric
department will sense this and a radio
signal will be sent out to the individual
units, telling the switch to turn off for 7
minutes.
The indoor fan will continue to
operate and users will notice very little
change in the temperature.
Twenty minutes later, if the city is
still near the peak, the radio signal will
again be sent out and the compressor
will again be cut off for another 7
minutes, and so on.
The radio switches are in boxes, a
little thicker than a medium sized book
and will be installed on the outside of
the units by air conditioning experts.
There will be no cost to consumers for
the switch, its installation or main
tenance.
Other parts of the system include 3
monitoring units at each substation
which will watch electric useage of the
city. That will be totaled on a computer
at the central office and when a certain
point is reached the control comes on
and transmits signals to the individual
units to cut off. t
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Tuesday Afternoon, August 16,1977
cooker. The beans are under 15 pounds
of pressure.
The process takes approximately 35
minutes. She tries to can the day or day
after the garden is harvested. This is
usually in July of August.
The following day, Mrs. Hammond
applies pressure to the cap and
removes the ring. This is done in order
that the ring doesn’t rust before she
uses the canned goods.
She can’t recall the last time she has
purchased rings because the rings may
be used over and over. She stresses,
however, that caps cannot be used
twice.
She uses both pint and quart jars to
have different sizes to fit her different
dishes. The average number of quarts
canned in a day is 28.
She warns canners to leave the
pressure cooker alone until the
pressure is down and to make sure the
jars are sealed.
“If the top sinks in then the jar is
sealed, but if it is boiled up, then recap
it,” she warns.
When Mrs. Hammond first began
canning, she just did fruits.
“Because there were no pressure
cookers, people had to cook the beans in
Hospital to get fence;
committee meets open
A fence 8 feet tall will be erected
around the Griffin-Spalding Hospital.
And if City Commissioner Louis
Goldstein or anybody else learns what
key hospital personnel are being paid,
they’ll have to get the hospital
authority’s approval.
These were 2 of many topics
discussed during Monday night’s
authority meeting which lasted more
than 3 hours. According to Chairman 0.
M. “Pete” Snider, it was the longest
meeting the authority has ever held.
Enclosing the hospital grounds was
approved by a vote of 5 to 3.
Dick Hyatt, who commented that the
hospital has an obligation to protect
both visitors and employes as well as
the patients, moved the fence be
erected.
Bill Wesley seconded the motion.
Snider, Larry Ballard and Otis Head
also voted in its favor.
Mrs. Jo Pollard, Dr. Kenneth
Reynolds and Jerry Savage voted “no.”
Mrs. Pollard said she had talked with
many people about the fence. She
suggested that before building it, the
hospital try a plan recommended by
People
••• and things
Young mother taking double look
price, shrugging in resignation, the
buying jacket for first grader.
Sixth grader getting in extra hour on
his skateboard, realizing that school
soon will cut his time for it.
Spalding farmer getting kick out of
watching 2 -year-old sample water
melon.
• kzi fitnc
i.. I i^|
“What you call a living wage
depends a lot on how you like to
live.”
a can and then in a jar,” she said.
She remembers some people canning
with acid and some with vinegar, but
she didn’t like the food prepared either
way.
When asked what was her favorite
food to can, Mrs. Hammond doesn’t
hesitate to answer “beans.” She feels
they are the easiest. “In all my years of
canning, I have never lost any beans,”
she said.
It is impossible to even estimate the
number of jars Mrs. Hammond has
canned. “I just put up and put up,” she
muses. She always likes to have a jar
available to give to friends and
relatives.
Mrs. Hammond cans for three
reasons. One is to have fresh garden
vegetables in the winter and another is
because it is impossible to use all the
vegetables at the time of harvest.
The main reason is because she can’t
stand to “see anything wasted.” “I
have always saved everything and
haven’t got out of the habit,” she said.
Mrs. Hammond feels that anyone can
do the process of canning. “I encourage
young people to try it," she com
mented. “I did and have enjoyed it ever
since,” she concluded.
Also
I.— Authority votes to make hospital
committee meetings open to the public.
2. — Radio man wants data on am
bulance service but authority declines.
3. — Hospital negotiates with Roger
Miller for back-up service.
4. — City Commissioners invited to
authority meetings.
5. — Accounting foulups discussed.
6. — Red tape causes costs to go up.
Executive Director William Feely
which would provide that employes use
the south parking lot and that their cars
be registered with parking permits.
Visitors could park in the front.
Savage agreed and said he’d like to
try an alternative first, since the fence
would require a full time guard at the
back gate.
Dr. Reynolds objected to the fence
running as far in front as Ninth street.
He wondered just how many crimes
had been committed on the hospital
grounds lately.
According to Administrator Carl
Ridley, there have been 3 reports in the
City
Board studies exemption for solar energy
The city commissioners are studying
a proposal by Dr. Kit Weathers that
solar energy systems be exempted
from city ad valorem taxation.
The Georgia constitution has been
amended to authorize city and county
governments to exempt certain
property used in a solar energy heating
or cooling systems and machinery and
equipment used in the manufacture of
such systems.
The exemptions would be void ef
fective July 1, 1986.
According to Dr. Weathers, the
exemption would be justified because of
the high costs of the system which is not
mass produced. Without federal and
state incentives, it will be at least 15
years before they will be mass
produced, he said.
Although people are showing an in
creasing interest in solar energy, they
can’t afford it because of its high costs
Vol. 105 No. 193
Mm i M \ •
Mrs. Hammond checks her latest production.
last year, including a purse snatching
and a report of a man’s attempting to
shove a woman into a car.
Grounds Committee Chairman Larry
Ballard who was in charge of the
project said the fence would be so far
away from the front and side of the
hospital it would not be noticeable,
except at the rear and at the northwest
front corner where gates would be
erected.
The back and side near the
emergency room would not be en
closed.
The front gates will be closed after
visiting hours at night, leaving the only
opening at the Eighth street entrance
where a guard would be on constant
duty.
Authority members were planning to
walk around and inspect the property
line, but it was too dark by the time the
meeting adjourned.
They agreed with Mr. Head’s
suggestion not to use barbed wire
across the top and to make it 8 feet tall
instead of the proposed 6 feet.
Quite some time was spent discussing
recommendations on making hospital
($3 to $5 per square foot of space to be
heated or cooled); the continuing real
estate costs because the the addition of
the system to a facility if treated as a
capital improvement to real property
and taxed according to its value; and
additional high costs of a required
back-up or support system, plus con
tinuing operational and maintenance
expenses.
Weathers asked that the city exempt
solar systems from ad valorem
taxation which would encourage people
to use that form of energy.
Rec budget
The City Commissioners are studying
a proposed recreation department
budget which was given them by
Commissioner Ernest “Tiggy” Jones,
who serves as a nonvoting member of
the recreation board.
According to Jones, the city and
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA —
Partly cloudy and continued warm
through Wednesday with low tonight
around 70 and high Wednesday in upper
80s.
LOCAL WEATHER — Low this
morning a the Spalding Forestry Unit
69, high Monday 92.
financial reports public and on holding
secret committee meetings.
Feely’s recommendation was ap
proved that if anyone asks to see a
hospital record and if that person is not
satisfied with Feely’s decision about
the matter, that the person put the
question before the board.
“I think the public has a right to look
at any records, as long as individual
rights are not violated. I would not
allow personnel files on our people or
medical records to be publicized,” he
said.
Dr. Reynolds said, “I think this board
should get Feely off the hook and it
should set the policy. The board should
decide what’s public and let Feely
carry it out. . .Be specific about what’s
open. The Sunshine Act is specific about
what should be available and provides
that all records are to be open, except
patients’ medical records.”
He noted that in the past, minutes of
authority meetings were not available
to the public.
“I favor making public monthly
financial statements, books and
(Continued on page 3.)
county governments each will be asked
to come up with about SIBO,OOO for the
new fiscal year, some $30,000 more than
the $128,000 each contributed last year.
The increases are justified, Jones
explained, because of the added costs of
staffing the new Fairmont Recreation
Center, plus the increased upkeep and
additional utility bills.
Apology
City Manager Roy Inman offered his
“sincerest apology” to the Chamber of
Commerce, Mrs. Mildred Sawyer and
others for what he termed “a grave
injustice.”
He said after several phone calls he
was prompted to go back and search
the city records further back in time
than had been reported to him in May.
He found that the Chamber had made
3 payments to the city for off street
(Continued on page two.)
