National Family Opinion Mail Survey, Alltrista Consumer Products Company, Muncie, Indiana, 1996. The survey was a random sampling of 250,000 households throughout the United States and is performed every 3 to 5 years. This home canner is more likely to live in the central region of the United States and least likely to live along a coast. The following chart gives a breakdown of the foods canned. Values are given as percentages of respondents who do home canning.
Meat is the most intimidating, or least appealing, item for beginners.
Tomato sauces seem to be the most consistent, with only a slight difference between beginners and veterans canning these sauces. Perhaps veteran canners have just not caught on yet. Fifty-eight percent of canners cite their own garden as the source of the food they can. Economic considerations were mentioned as a reason, but this is probably not a main motivation for most canners. To avoid a debate reminiscent of the chicken and the egg, we can accept that gardening and canning can represent similar motivations.