Most supermarket carts reach the checkout counter these days loaded with dozens of canned products. We don’t give a second thought to the process involved in producing that can of vegetables, fruit or berries, except for a vague assumption that it all takes place in some gigantic facility far away.

That wasn’t always the case. At one time, many local families had gardens where they would plant, nurture and harvest a variety of crops meant to provide meals for several coming months. Several methods of home food preservation were used then, as now, but it’s not widely remembered that local canning factories could take on very small orders for local families as well as the contract jobs for large farms.

The North Auburn Canning Factory located at Church Corner was one such operation. The canning season began in July with cherries and it peaked in August when tons of beans were being picked. Then, it continued through the sweet corn and tomato season and into the early fall for squash and pumpkins.

An August 1945 issue of the Lewiston Evening Journal magazine section had a profile of that factory written by Ina N. McCausland. She captured some descriptions of a unique period of industrialization that mixed business with democracy at a truly neighborhood level.

McCausland told how James Webster Bennett – known as Webb to his friends and employees – acquired the old Lakeside Packing Company in 1911, and for several decades he ran a modest commercial and custom canning operation.

It was the informality of the business that intrigued the writer. She described a typical day when members of nearly every family in North Auburn and on Dillingham Hill would gather for a day of work at the cannery. Women showed up with their favorite knives, a few men who were not involved in summer farm work would come to the factory to augment their incomes, and some youngsters also pitched in.

A job in the cannery was also a social event. The neighbors swapped local news and gossip as they went about their tasks.

Under the supervision of Bennett and his wife, the workers would look at the day’s orders and divide up the duties. Beans were the principal crop every summer, and the first order of business was snipping off the ends of each pod by hand. Next, the beans went into wire baskets for blanching – a quick dip in scalding water. Tin cans were arrayed at the filling table to receive the hot beans, a cover was dropped onto the top of each can and sealed in place.

The cooking took place in the retort, which most people would call the pressure cooker. When the cooking was complete, large batches of hot cans were lifted out by block and tackle and they dried by evaporation under their own heat.

There was a small hole in each cover, and the final step was to solder it closed.

Lot number were printed on the cans to match up with the crop’s owner, and labels were applied.

Beans came in from large farms as far as Clinton and Bethel. Every can was processed and marked so that each farmer got only his own crop back when he returned and loaded up hundreds of cans at the end of the day.

The small custom orders were scheduled for days between the major jobs, McCausland explained. She said a family in a nearby town would write to Bennett and arrange a schedule for the canning of their harvest. Then, on the morning of a set date, they would drop off the garden produce and head off for a day of shopping in Lewiston. Later in the day, they returned to North Auburn to pick up the cans that would provide home-grown food for months to come.

McCausland emphasized that Bennett’s business model was a true example of democracy in action. Neighbors shared in planning, in the work and in the profits.

The story in the paper recalled one of Mrs. Bennett’s memories. Her four-year-old nephew was helping pack cans on the cooking pan. At noon, she decided to encourage the boy so she gave him three shiny 50-cent pieces. He clutched them in his hand and started to leave.

“Where are you going?” his surprised aunt asked.

“I’m going home,” he said. “I’ve got enough money.”