Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1898 — Warden Harley’s Cannery. [ARTICLE]

Warden Harley’s Cannery.

Warden Harley is running a canning factory at the prison, says the Dispatch, that is quite an extensive affair. It is also a very laudable one for the reason that it is operated exclusively for the benefit of the warden’s guests, the convicts. At present the industry is confined to canning tomatoes, of which some 1,500 to 2,000 bushels will be put up —the most of them in 10 gallon cans —for the use of the main dining room, and a liberal quantity in small cans for the use of hospital patients. The tomatoes are cut in halves and cooked in an immensesteamheater cauldron, and when cooked sufficiently are put in cans hot and hermetically sealed. No water is added to the tomatoes; they are cooked in their own juice and all their natural flavor is retained. Next week the warden will open a sauer kraut factory and convert 75,000 heads of cabbage into that famous dish. The convicts will be treated to sauer kraut and tomatoes for a long time to come. The cost of putting up the tomatoes is only seven cents per gallon and that of the sauer kraut will be relatively small.