Tomato Canning in the Ozarks

 Tomato Canning In The Ozarks 🍅 

Tomatoes were an important crop all over the Ozarks, from the early 1900’s, through the 1940’s. According to the August 22, 1901 edition of the Douglas County Herald, “Southwest Missouri is one of the greatest tomato canning sections in the U.S. There are twenty-two factories in ten counties, which last year packed over a million cans each.”

The popularity of raising tomatoes in the region was attributed to the ground being too rocky and uneven for crops like corn, but able to support tomato plants. 

According to the Douglas County Herald:

Tomatoes were planted, weeded, and harvested by hand. The harvest was then transported by horse and wagon to a canning factory. 

The factory would move the tomatoes from the wagons to large wire baskets which were lowered into vats of hot water to scald the tomatoes and make them easier to peel.

The scalded tomatoes were then emptied into wooden troughs with women sitting on each side, using wooden-handled teaspoon-shaped knives to peel the fruit. Buckets of peeled tomatoes were taken to another trough where the fruits were packed into cans. 

Tomatoes were sealed into the cans, then cooked and packed into cardboard boxes for shipping.

Pictured: A Canning factory in Webster County; Heart of the Ozarks brand tomatoes, Crane, Missouri.