Simply Necessity?: Agency and Aesthetics in Southern Home Canning

In n a 2008 ethnographic celebration of American county fairs, Drake Hokanson and Carol Kratz pointed to pigs, quilts, and dirty pickup trucks as surefire signs of rural culture. Jars of colorful award-winning preserves also affirmed the vibrant life beyond urban centers: after all, the authors asked, "Who in the city makes jelly?" Indeed, jars of sweet potato butter, corncob jelly, pickled ramps, and peach-pecan preserves proclaim country pride in venues across the South today. They crowd the shelves of the Museum of Appalachia store in Clinton, Tennessee, and balance in stacks at the Western North Carolina Farmers' Market in Asheville. Farther east, in South Carolina's Lowcountry, the Charleston Farmers' Market offers downtown visitors half-pints of muscadine-apple jam from Grace's Kitchen, and a repurposed gas station off the Charleston Highway stocks condiments like sweet tea jelly (from Rina's Kitchen) alongside local barbecue sauces and plates of fresh pie