Claire M. Schmidt (Missouri Valley College)
American foodways are and will continue to be tied to weather and climate. One expression of that relationship is the 21st century canning renaissance embraced by new Millennial and GenZ canners and continued by older practitioners. This paper explores the role changing weather patterns play in how 21st century Americans talk about, think about, and practice home canning. While weather is, colloquially, safe conversational territory, climate change is politicized. That politicization calls upon shared ideas of the end of the world, deserved or not. I suggest canning for the zombie apocalypse is an aesthetic and communicative act that exerts local and imaginative control over a future that remains out of our hands.
Part of 05-04 Weatherlore, Part 2: W(he/ea)ther the Weather [hybrid], Friday, October 14, 10:30 am–12:30 pm