On 3/4/2015 4:41 PM, Fran Farmer wrote:
On 4/03/2015 4:18 AM, Derald wrote:
Fran Farmer wrote:

Green beans don't freeze well in home freezers but
they're tolerable in January, when there's not a fresh bean in sight
unless one is willing to pay exhorbitant prices for those things the
grocery stores sell.

:-)) On the few occasions I've bothered to look at sites online that
showed the prices of food in the US, I can't believe how cheap it is.
You would not like the prices we pay in Oz.

snip

Pressure canners have only fairly recently
become available int his country...
Goodness; I find that surprising but I do remember seeing, in an
online catalog, types of containers no longer used here. Seems to me
the lid-sealing arrangement differed.


I'm sure the pressure canners haven't been available here because really
there has never been a real need for them. Most of our country is snow
free all year round and only a small part of the country gets any snow
at all and so our shops all stock large quantities of fresh fruit and
veg all year round. It's all affordable even the tropical stuff when in
season. Our climate generally allows keen gardeners to produce fresh
product all year round to some degree. For example, I live in a cold
climate but I still can eat something out of my garden even in the
depths of winter. David H-S who live sin amuch warmer climate can grow
far wider range than I can but perhaps he is too warm and humid for
growing good apples.

Australia also des't have the sort of hunted animals that USians often
'can'. Any Australian who did shoot a kangaroo is far more likely to
use it for dog food than for eating himself and if you told him that he
could probably 'can' it as USians do for deer, he'd think you were
trying to pull his leg.
Actually most US hunters preserve their catch by freezing the meat. I've
been a hunter since I got my first rifle at five, that's about 70 years
ago. We never canned meat, took to long in the pressure canner and
wasn't all that tasty when opened.

Worked with a number of folks from Oz back in the eighties in the Middle
East, none of them appeared to have hunted anything but several were
avid fishermen. Their main hobby was hunting for beer. G Good workers
and, generally, good people. Passed through Oz once when I was a young
man in the flying Navy, good beer there.

The common preserving method used here was known as the Fowlers Vacola
method (hot water bath) and that covered the sort of preserved food most
households ate here ie fruit. Preserved veg was never popular when home
preserving was a big hobby/domestic habit.

A friend tried to explain the Vacola method but I never understood it
completely. We hot water bath fruit, jellies and jams here but use a
different jar, one with a ring and a self-sealing lid when boiled.
Here's a website that has all the info on that: http://nchfp.uga.edu/