November, 1910.3 



415 



Edible Products. 



FRUIT BOTTLING: AN INDUSTRY 

 FOR SMALL HOLDERS. 



By Edith Bradley. » 



(Prom the Journal of the Board of Agri- 



cuture, Vol. XVII., No. 5, June, 1910.) 



Of all the useful and valuable food 

 products which a small holder can grow, 

 fruit and vegetables should rank amongst 

 the first, but, as fruit-growers know 

 only too well, this branch of agriculture 

 is a great lottery : in a good year the 

 crop may bring in hundreds of pounds, 

 in a bad hundreds may be lost. Conse- 

 quently, the utmost use should be made 

 of all fruit which reaches maturity, and 

 if it cannot be consumed or sold in its 

 ripe state, it should be preserved for 

 future requirements, during the seven 

 or eight months of the year when our 

 orchards are unproductive. 



Of all forms of fruit preservation, 

 there is none more simple or more satis- 

 factory than Fruit Bottling. It is 

 simplicity itself, only requiring the 

 natural care of a trained intelligence, 

 it is inexpensive, and it can be made a 

 profitable industry. 



The Process. — Fruit bottling preserves 

 the fruit by destroying the germs which 

 cause decay. If the germs are des- 

 troyed, the fruit or vegetable will keep 

 sound and good for a considerable time 

 if kept perfectly air-tight. Some 

 samples of fruit which were bottled 

 years ago are still good. This result 

 can be obtained by simply filling an air- 

 tight jar with fruit, capping it, and 

 subjecting the bottle, with its contents, 

 to steam heat at a certain temperature. 



The process is as follows : — 



The fruit which is to be sterilised 

 should be gathered on a diy day, care- 

 fully stored, and, where possible, graded 

 into different baskets or pans. It must 

 always be remembered in selecting the 

 fruit that bad fruit is bad fruit, and 

 inferior fruit can never be made into 

 choice fruit by any process of drying, 

 bottling, or making into ,jam. Good 

 fruit and its products always have a 

 certain value and the preserved article 

 can always command a fair price. 



All fruits require certain preliminary 

 preparation before putting into bottles : 

 for instance, gooseberries should be 

 topped and tailed, currants shredded 

 from their stalks with light fingers, 

 rhubarb should be skinned and cut into 



£ieces of a uniform size ; cherries must 

 e stalked, and, it possible, stoned; the 

 hull should be removed from raspberries ; 

 plums, greengages, and damsons must 

 have their stalks removed; large juicy 



plums should be cut into halves before 

 being placed into the bottle ; peaches 

 and nectarines should be skinned and 

 stoned, and halved ; apples and pears 

 should be peeled and cut into halves 

 and quarters. A silver or plated knife 

 only should be used for fruit. 



When the fruit has been prepared, it 

 is carefully packed into a wide-mouthed 

 bottle with a proper cap ; the more 

 care that is taken in placing the fruit 

 in the bottle the better is the result. 

 Soft fruit, like gooseberries and currants, 

 require shakiug together in order to be 

 packed closely ; rhubarb should be 

 placed in upright rows as far as possible ; 

 plums also should be arranged in rows, 

 because the bottle will hold more if they 

 are put in this way. The taste and 

 ingenuity of the fruit bottler has ample 

 scope for display at this stage. 



Having filled the bottle with fruit 

 packed closely together, plain cold water 

 should be added, until the fruit is entire- 

 ly covered. Next, the rubber ring, 

 which helps to make the bottle air-tight, 

 should be carefully laid, without twist 

 or wrinkle, on the rim specially make 

 for it, in the neck of the bottle ; upon 

 the ring should be placed the glass or 

 metal diso, which can be held in position 

 by the second finger of the left hand, 

 while the metal ring is screwed on with 

 the right hand, but is left slightly loose 

 to allow for expansion. 



A dozen or fourteen bottles so filled 

 constitute " a charge " for the Steriliser 

 in which they are placed in neat rows ; 

 cold water is poured into the vessel, 

 until it reaches nearly to the shoulder 

 of the bottles ; the lid is put on, and 

 the thermometer with the long bulb 

 inserted through the opening made to 

 receive it in the middle of the lid, 

 (c). The temperature should be carefnlly 

 noted at this point ; it is usually about 

 60 or 65 degrees. It is clearly indicated 

 on the porcelain dial of the thermometer, 

 which should stand out above the lid 

 of the steriliser, as seen in the accom- 

 panying illustration. The distended 

 tube containing the bidb of the ther- 

 mometer calls for notice, because when 

 it is placed in the middle of the bottles, 

 where the process of sterilisation is 

 going on, it registers the exact degree 

 of heat upon the white dial. 



Heat is next applied to raise the 

 temperature of the contents of the 

 steriliser. It can be applied by a gas 

 ring, an oil stove, steam, or a kitchen 

 fire, and the temperature of the water 

 bath is thus slowly raised until it is 

 sufficiently high inside the glass jars to 

 kill the germs. The exact degree of heat 



