Fruit – it’s worth bottling

The revelation that a Fowlers persevering kit was up for grabs as a prize during competition at Natimuk Show would have sparked all sorts of memories for many people.

For some of us, it reminded us of a time of coming home from school on a hot summer’s day, both hungry and thirsty after hours of classroom and playground toil.

It was almost automatic. First thing, reach into the pantry for a jar of bottled apricots.

Secondly, grab a tray of ice cubes from the freezer and milk from the fridge.

Thirdly, get a chair to reach the all-powerful vitamiser in the cupboard above the stove and then smash all contents together on the noisiest and highest setting possible.

Lastly, pour the sloppy but delightful mixture into large glass and enjoy!

Having a back yard full of fruit trees, bottling bountiful harvests and never having enough cupboards to store the jars were simply a way of life for many people in our neighbourhood.

And yes, while stores usually disappeared before the next season’s harvest, occasionally there was a random discovery of a long-forgotten stash of bottled fruit that emerged in an overdue clean-up of the back shed.

As children, helping pare fruit and ‘delicately’ squashing portions into jars that went into the Fowlers preserver was dreadfully tedious and messy.

But, reflecting on it now, the result was a constant supply of high-quality food – always at our fingertips.

The reality of having access to so much home-grown fruit, whether it was out of the jars or fresh from the trees or vines, was something we took for granted.

Apricots, apples, peaches, grapes, oranges, lemons, grapefruit – the list seemed endless and all from a typical urban back yard.

We were all as spoilt as the samples of fruit that inevitably gathered at the base of trees and we occasionally had to clean up with the rake.

There are plenty of reasons why the seasonal practice of bottling fruit or even growing fruit at all lost mainstream appeal.

Readily available produce on the supermarket shelf from around the world, let alone the district, region or Australia, a lack of time to dedicate to a home garden and simply a lack of interest are all partly to blame.

But you only need to look around to see that the idea of home-grown produce is far from forgotten.

Vigorous tell-tale growth from apple trees, perhaps in badly need of a prune, sway over back fences and there is always someone bragging about the perfect tomato.