By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
At 88 years old, Jim Bankey has a can-do attitude. As the fifth born in a family of 10 kids, he is just as determined and driven today as he was growing up.
He started working in a local grocery store when he was 8; by 10, he was working the cash register, and when the store was closed on Wednesdays, he would deliver the newspaper. His earnings helped buy the family’s first refrigerator when he was 14.
After he retired from a 25-year career at Atlas Crankshaft in Fostoria, Bankey filled his days with hobbies, from watercolor painting to gardening and cooking to canning.
The competitive spirit that fueled his drive throughout his life ultimately led him to the Wood County Fair. He wanted to see how his hobbies stacked up against others.
He chose to enter some paintings—after he had taken a watercolors class at the Wood County Senior Center—and some canned goods. The paintings did well in judging, but the canned goods, well, not so much that first year.
Bankey learned to cook meals and preserve produce from his mother Gertrude. His kitchen skills paid off when it came to feeding his own family, but in the competitive world of fair judging his canning talents needed some fine-tuning, he said.
Early on, he was told the jars should be filled precisely, depending on the contents, and there should be no foreign material or bubbles floating inside.
“Two years later, the judge held up my canned beets and declared them to be ‘the most perfect,’” Bankey said. Only after the declaration did the judge realize, “It was a man who entered the contest,” he said.
From that point on, he accepted the challenge to prove he could be competitive in a woman-dominated contest. He canned dill and sweet pickles, red beets and pickled beets, sweet and dill relishes, tomatoes and salsas, and peaches and pears.
Bankey became a frequent first-, second- and third-place winner, but he never won enough to be the Thomas Zeigler Sweepstakes winner with the most overall points, that is, until last year.
He likely is the first man to have earned the sweepstakes title, at least in recent history.
“It doesn’t necessarily matter how many first-place winners you have,” he said. “It’s about entering more categories and placing first, second or third across the board.”
For many years, he had entered canned produce, but no jams or jellies. He discovered he had a better chance of winning with overall points by entering more categories. Once he started doing jellies and jams, he had more entries.
In 2023, he won blue ribbons in any other fruit, vegetable soup, tomatoes, dill pickles, pickled relish, red beets, sweet pickles, red raspberry jam, any other jam, apple jelly cherry jelly and red raspberry jelly.
His canned “any other jam,” grape jelly, black raspberry jelly, “any other jelly” and salsa earned him the red ribbon. Two yellow ribbons for his peaches and peach jam took his total points to the top. His green beans and applesauce were the only two entries that didn’t place.
He’s most proud that his canned red beets have won all but once in the past 14 years, and that one time was a mishandling mishap when the lid came loose, he explained.
Aside from last year, 2003 was a year to remember. He won best of show in the fine arts judging with a yellow butterfly watercolor painting and champion pickled beets.
Bankey is meticulous in the kitchen, whether he’s cooking dinner or canning. When it comes to canning, he knows consistency is key. He always makes sure whatever fruit or vegetable he is putting through the process is uniform in size. Even when preparing vegetables for vegetable soup, “I make sure every potato, carrot and other vegetable is the same size,” he said.
Most of the produce he cans comes from one of his two giant gardens. The gardens are full of fruits and vegetables, from tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to beets, pears and raspberries. Bankey oversees the process from seeds to the table.
“When I get into something, I want to get to be the best at it,” Bankey said. Winning the sweepstakes last year achieved that goal for him. This year he said he’s “backing down” and only taking 18 entries when he delivers the canning entries for the 2024 Wood County Fair, which starts on Sunday (July 28).
That was hard to tell at the recent interview. His kitchen was still full of boxes of mason jars filled with an assortment of canned produce, salsas, vegetable soup, and pickles.
He cans approximately 150 quarts a year, though he admitted that many of the jars will go to others.
He consistently donates to the food pantry at the Portage Methodist Church, just recently dropping off a case of jams and jellies.
“We had nothing when I was growing up. The Eagles would give us a basket at the holidays, so I learned the importance of giving. Now I love to see when people appreciate the canned goods I give them,” Bankey said.
Once the judging is complete at this year’s fair, Bankey starts the process all over again. In September, he will begin canning what’s left in his garden for next year’s tables and canning judging.
