Who We Are
Wiley Canning Company is dedicated to canning, pickling, and preserving fruits and vegetables.
We were founded in July 2020 by Chelsea J. O’Leary. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, we are rooted in seasonality, education, and family.
We create recipes that allow us to safely save fruits and vegetables longterm. Additionally, we teach workshops and host events, centered around shared ingredients, space, and dialogue, to meaningfully connect with one another. Our recipes, workshops, and events celebrate and protect seasonal flavors, efforts, and experiences.
Our recipes, workshops, and events can be accessed through a variety of offerings.
What Came Before Us
PART I
October in Ohio brings reminders of transition everywhere I look. High school seniors have begun their final fall semester as aluminum bleachers fill every Friday night. Stadium lights glisten as mayflies dance around their glowing hum. Red maple trees begin to live up to their name as their leaves turn vibrant crimson, and I begrudgingly accept that sticky summer days are now behind me. The Ohio skies darken each evening before I’m ready, only to soon welcome a morning chill that makes my exhale visible, reminding me my lungs are full and my breath is warm.
By this time of year, my grandfather’s forearms had turned to leathery brown from a summer spent absorbing the rays of the golden sun, with one small exception. He, Grandpa Don, had a perfectly pale outline where his watch sat on his left wrist, but only we, the ones closest to him, ever saw his bare, circular tan line. As the Ohio skies darkened each evening before he was ready, he prepared for his final harvest of the year. I knew this without having to be told because the towering corn stalks finally turned crispy and beige. This was about the time I climbed into his combine, on top of the world, and watched in awe as its huge machinery glided through thousands of waving stalks, laying his fields to rest for winter. The silos filled as my grandfather began to consider rest and celebration. We kept our fingers crossed for a healthy, fruitful harvest, and without skipping a beat, we moved onto honoring the morning of October 17 as a family, as we did every year of my life. We ate homemade chili, made from Canned Tomatoes, and chocolate chip cookies as we sat and sang at an old wooden table, and I said aloud, “This is my favorite meal in the world, you know.”
PART II
Less than twenty miles east of where we sat, a white farmhouse stood humbly among corn stalks, among acres and acres of farmland. The farmhouse was built in 1850, having no idea it would bear witness to the American Civil War, World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. In 1920, it became the home of an agrarian family, one who would remain here for the next century, and one who, on the morning of October 17, 1935, welcomed their second child—a daughter—into the world. Gertrude Wiley, “Trudy,” was born beneath the Ohio skies, as the Red maple trees began to live up to their name as their leaves turned vibrant crimson, like they would every October thereafter.
Trudy was raised as the Great Depression and World War II became inseparable frameworks of one’s childhood, inseparable influences on the Wiley family’s approach to living, loving, and raising children. Families remained close. Acres of flat earth turned into farmland. Farmland turned into farmed food, and farmed food turned into shelves of home canned, pickled, and preserved fruits and vegetables. Canned Tomatoes, Aristocrat Pickles, and Strawberry Jam were only a few of the canned, pickled, and preserved fruits and vegetables that became culinary mainstays in the Wiley home.
PART III
As her childhood faded and her young adult life drew near, Trudy, at twenty-three years young, met someone whose approach to living, loving, and raising children was shared. The very day they met, he had returned from a two-year draft in Germany, ready to be home beneath the Ohio skies.
Less than a year later, on Valentine’s Day weekend, this man stood at the end of an aisle as he married the second child—a daughter—of an agrarian family, Trudy. She wore a traditional ivory gown, and he wore a straightforward, well-pressed suit. His sleeves were just long enough to cover the perfectly pale outline where his watch sat on his left wrist, only the ones closest to him ever saw. Together, they built a simple life, one focused on farming and family, less than twenty miles west of the white farmhouse that stood humbly among towering corn stalks, among acres and acres of farmland.
Today, it is my Grandma Trudy’s homemade chili, made from Canned Tomatoes, and chocolate chip cookies I crave and covet. It is the morning of October 17, 1935 we honor year after year—her birthday—as we keep our fingers crossed for a healthy, fruitful harvest. It is she, Trudy Wiley, who inspired Wiley Canning Company.
Wiley Canning Company is built upon a family legacy of land stewardship, home food preservation, and meals shared around a table. It is my ode and “thank you” to all who came before me. It is my way of carrying forward all that I treasure about my family’s approach to living, loving, and raising children.
