GARDENING CLUB

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 14

GARDENING CLUB

PRESERVING OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES The Dunedin Gardening Club held its first meeting for 1937 in the Homo Science Department, when the lecturers of the Association of Country Education gave a demonstration ou the preserving of fruits and vegetables. Miss Robins, who carried out the major portion of the demonstration, stated that in New Zealand where much fruit and produce could not be marketed, 17,000,0001 bof preserved fruits were imported annually. Fruits and vegetables could be preserved by different methods :—(1) By heat; (2) by adding harmless preservatives as salt, sugar, or acids; (3) by drying. Where the acidity of fruits was sufficiently high, as in green gooseberries and rhubarb, they could be preserved by simply adding cold water and sealing the. jars. . . Sugar was not necessary, but it improved the flavour. It was usual to preserve fruits in syrup, which could be of varying strength. A thin syrup suitable for pears would consist of one cup of sugar to three cups of water, brought to boiling point. A heavy syrup for peaches would be made by adding one cup of sugar to one cup of water, while a good general syrup for plums and other fruits would be made by adding one cup of sugar to two cups or water. The lecturer showed the method of blanching and stoning peaches, peeling and preparing pears so as to preserve the colour, and preparing tomatoes for puree and cocktail. Peas, beans, and cucumbers could bo preserved by dry-salting with fermentation, brine salting with fermentation, or plain dry-salting. The water bath was the most convenient piece of equipment for the average householder, but steam pressure cookers and steam baths were almost indispensable where large quantities were to be bandied. Mr Passmore returned thanks to Misses Grocott, Robins, and Buddie for their instructive demonstration.