Deep Frozen Foods Replace Preserves

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28434, 14 November 1957, Page 2

Deep Frozen Foods Replace Preserves

‘ Deep frozen foods on sale in the stores and refrigerators installed in the modern home were blamed for poor entries in the preserves classes at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association’s Show yesterday, by the judge of the section, Mrs R. S. Gunn, of Darfield. Housewives no longer vied with one another for the greatest assortment of preserved fruits and vegetables on their pantry shelves, she said. They preferred to keep their refrigerators well stocked with frozen goods and open a packet as required, rather than go through the drudgery of doing their own preserves in the heat of summer.

“Home preserving is n lost art and the zest has gone out of this type of competition,” Mrs Gunn said. Even so, there was a colourful display of fruits and vegetables arranged attractively for Mrs Gunn to test. The exhibitors had prepared their entries with painstaking attention to detail of size and shape with a view to entering them in a show. They had not just taken jars out of a dark corner in the top kitchen cupboard in a last-minute decision to exhibit them.

Prize-winning entries in the preserves, jams and sauces were well up to standard, said Mrs Gunn.

A country exhibitor, Mrs G. W. Cullen (Darfield) won most of the prizes with her preserves, as she has been doing for many years. Cooking It seems that the best town and' country cooks no longer exhibit in metropolitan she .vs. At least that is the belief of Miss M. McCrostie. who judged the cakes and biscuits. As Miss McCrostie cut into rich fruit cakes, madeiras and sultana cakes, a tantalising aroma wafted out of the produce shed, where the classes were being exhibited. But many of the fruit cakes had surrounding crusts; several of the madeira cakes were undercooked or had air holes in them; more than half of the sultana cakes were either overcooked, raw, doughy or had sunken fruit.

Prize-winners made up for the uneven over-all standard of cooking and satisfied the keen eye of the judge. Many of the entries in the biscuit classes showed imagination in assort-

ment and careful baking, Miss McCrostie said.

In the bread classes, judged by Mr W. R. Hawker, two new exhibitors, D. A. Howarth and Mrs H. Howarth, of St. Albans, were the most successful competitors and their names appeared frequently on award caru. in the bun classes as well. Miss F. McLaughlin, of Riccarton, who has become renowned for her skill in makir' T oatcakes and girdle scones, won many more prizes yesterday to add to her collection of cards. The wine section was deleted from the 1957 catalogue because of lack of interest in recent years and there were no entries in the honey classes yesterday. Cheeses Cheeses, in general, were of a high show standard, according to the judges, Messrs F. A. Chailies and R. Hale, of the dairy division of the Department of Agriculture. “The cheeses awarded prizes had good flavours, nice bodies, close textures and, in most cases, attractive finishes,” they said. The butter, exhibited by one dairy company only, was of choice quality. In the art and handicraft section of the show embroidery and babies’ knitting classes ’-'ere outstanding. All the handwork shown was attractive and indicated the extent of leasure-time interests of the town and country housewife. There were pretty felt work tea cosies, soft toys, peg aprons, novelty pictures, cross-stitch pictures, basketwork,' photography, leather work, crochet and many other examples of arts and crafts which can be done by the housewife at home. Miss B. Blair, of Lagmhor, Ashburton, won the clars for the best single exhibit of fancywork, as well as many other prizes in this section. Miss Daphne Marker was an outstanding exhibitor in the handwork classes for returned servicemen and hospital patients. In charge of both the produce and handwork sheds yesterday was Mrs L. N. Cuming, who has been doing this job for 13 years. Per husband has an even longer record of service in the same section—32 years. Their duties include preparing handcraft exhibits for the judges and returning entries to country exhibitors, ar- ; ranging handwork and produce ■for the public to inspect it and , watching over the goods committed to their care.