TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Bob Arkell of Arkell Foods - Bob Describes the Process of Canning Peaches

They were brought in for processing by hand to the steam bath where the skin fell off or peeled off, it made the skin slide right off, and then the ladies would have a knife there and peel them and split them and pack them into cans. They would put them up on the track and they would go on to the steamer (the whole thing was very mechanized right from the start). They would go through the steamer on the can line and right through the syruper into the steamer and through the closing machine and into the cook, which cooked anywhere from, it depends on the texture of the fruit at that time it could be anywhere from twenty minutes to thirty minutes, and it depends on the size of the can, 28 oz, 19 oz, 14 oz. Those were the standard size cans back then.