The Roanoke Times | File 2006

A sign and an old pressure tank are stored in the cannery building next to Auburn High School in Riner.

Throw out that picture in your mind of Granny sewing in the rocking chair or canning over a wood stove.

Today, young people are taking up these traditional homemaking skills.

Blacksburg seamstress Gladys Moritz says much of the interest in the sewing demonstrations she's given since April at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts in Christiansburg has come from college-age women.

"They're tired of the high prices" of clothes and gifts and "they want to stretch their dollars," Moritz said.

Getting set up to sew at home requires an upfront investment in a good machine and some other equipment. But over the long run, it can save money, she said.

Not only that, but as beginners master more advanced sewing techniques, they find they can customize their sewing projects to make something unique, Moritz said.

Those who get really good with a needle and thread can even capitalize on the skill. If a practiced home seamstress loses a day job, she (or he) can offer alteration services at home or through a local dry cleaner to make money while looking for another job, Moritz said.

Younger users have also poured into the Montgomery County Community Cannery in Riner, cannery volunteer Kelly Brennan said.

For a small fee, the Riner facility provides equipment and trained operators to help residents preserve the summer harvest of beans, tomatoes and other vegetables. Some nonprofit groups also use the cannery to produce apple butter and other food items they then sell to raise funds.

Use of the cannery has increased from about 40 individuals and groups in 2007 to nearly 50 in 2008, Brennan said. Many of those individuals are younger than organizers have seen in years past.

As elderly mainstay cannery users stop practicing the skill, younger people are taking their place, Brennan said.

Their interest in canning varies, but most people who use the cannery "have a personal sense of frugality or wanting to do for themselves," Brennan said.

As interest in local food production dovetails with rising food prices and grim economic forecasts, "people are hunting down the remaining canneries," Brennan said.

In the 1940s, community canneries flourished across the country. Today only a handful remain.

In 2005, a group of volunteers appealed to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to help them save the Riner cannery when the school system pulled its financial support.

Since then, the operation has survived on an $8,000 operating budget and mostly volunteer labor, Brennan said.

A resurgence in the popularity of canning may boost the cause of community canneries. The New York Times recently reported that sales of canning jars are up in urban areas, as are registrations in cooking classes.

In October, sales of Ball canning and storage products were up 92 percent over the same month last year. Widespread shortages of canning jars and lids have been reported.

In fact, as people give up restaurant meals in favor of home cooking, sales of cookbooks, inexpensive cookware and basic foods have risen, the newspaper reported.

About 60 percent of people surveyed by Mintel International, a market research firm, said they were cooking more often and dining out less frequently, the newspaper reported.