Question Box:

Title

Question Box:

Any Change in Sugar for Canning?

Subject

World War II

Excerpt

When OPA announced that there would be about as much sugar for home canning this year as last year, and that everybody in the family was entitled to a total of 35 pounds for canning during the fruit season, nobody expected people to want to get all that sugar at once. But some homemakers started asking for the whole allowance at the beginning of the summer, and dealers couldn't keep stocked, up.

Sugar supplies come from the refineries to the wholesalers, and from the wholesaler to the retailers, in monthly or weekly shipments, spread out through the summer, and all through the year.

So OPA decided that it would be better to divide the summer into two periods and after the housewives bought their 5 pounds on sugar stamp 40, let them have 10 pounds at a time for two sugar ration periods, instead of giving them 30 pounds all at once. Everybody will be entitled to just as much sugar for canning as OPA announced in the first place.

This is the answer to the first inquiry in today's mail bag. Here's what this homemaker wrote: "I understood I could get 85 pounds of sugar for home canning this summer, but I only get 5 pounds on sugar stamp 40 and my War Price and Rationing Board would only allow me 10 pounds on filing my application form. Last month my neighbor got her entire supply of 35 pounds per person without any trouble. Is this fair?"

Yes, the OPA continues to explain, this will work out fairly for everybody, since you'll get that other 10 pounds in the second ration period. And you may be better off in the long run than your neighbor, if she has put up a lot of early fruits, because your sugar will be automatically budgeted to take care of late peaches and pears and other canning. Unless your neighbor is careful she may not have enough sugar left for all she wants to do, and she won't be able to get more.

In dividing the canning season into two periods, OPA figures that many families may not need more than 10 pounds of sugar per person to do all their canning. Those that do need more can get it -- that is, get 10 pounds more -- if they state that the first lot was all used for canning.

Another possibility is that at the beginning of the season you might not wish to do much canning. Suppose your sugar stamp 49 for 5 pounds took care of all the berries and cherries you wanted to put up. Then, in the second period, you could get the full 30 pounds to do the late season fruits. Or you could get less than 10 pounds early, take the rest later. Either way, you can get the full 35 pounds if you need it.

Incidentally, a good many people have sent in sugar stamp 37 instead of spare stamp 37, attached to their applications for canning sugar. To avoid any loss because of doing this, OPA has now "invalidated" sugar stamp 37. It will never be used for any purpose in the future. If you put the wrong stamp on your application, it will be accepted as you intended, and in getting your second 10 pounds, you won’t have to attach any stamp, as the local War Price and Rationing Board has the first one on file, whichever, it was.