Fowler’s Vacola, a brand that has been preserving food since 1915, is not just a tool in my kitchen but a significant part of Australian culture, having been used in many households before mine.
It is a traditional Australian way to preserve food for the months when it is too cold to leave the house or when you need some plums for a crumble and there are none on the trees.
Mum had an orange stovetop unit that seemed to bubble away all day, as it was carefully monitored to stay on temperature.
The heart of the food preservation process was carefully preparing the fruits and vegetables, packing them into jars, sealing them and then placing them in the unit to begin the preserving process.
Mum wasn’t the only one who vacolaed.
Grandma’s passageway cupboard was stocked full of jars from last season and maybe the seasons before.
The jars, filled with plums, apricots, peaches and beans, were a colourful display of homegrown produce.
The most curious sight in the vacola jars was the rows of spaghetti in tomato sauce in the tall jars, which no-one ever seemed to eat.
These jars were No. 36, and nowadays, we don’t put any flour products, such as spaghetti, in vacola jars to be preserved.
When I asked Mum once why she didn’t make vacola jars of spaghetti in tomato sauce like Grandma, she bluntly said, “Why would you do that when a tin of spaghetti is only 69 cents?”
This response has always sat with me, making me realise the changing times and the convenience of modern life.
These days, a tin of spaghetti in tomato sauce has gone up to $2.80, and like the spaghetti in Grandma’s passageway cupboard, the preference is to still leave it on the shelf for someone else.
Fast-forward to now and growing food and preserving it for when someone wants a plum crumble has become part of my daily life.
As the preserving season approaches, a sense of anticipation fills the air, which could also be interpreted as a sense of dread, knowing what and how many jars are to come.
The number of vacola jars in the cupboard has been counted, and the right size of rings, lids and clips for each jar has been checked.
The vacola unit has been calibrated to ensure it’s ready to preserve this year’s harvest.
The stovetop unit is no longer used, as the unit now has power and a thermostat.
The plums for the crumble are about to be placed in the unit, followed by peaches, apricots, pineapple zucchini and tomatoes over the following days and weeks.
