Weather Affecting Home Bottling

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 14

Weather Affecting Home Bottling

IBy Our Grocery Reporter]

Home preserving is still moving along quietly, but changeable weather is affecting such crops as home-grown tomatoes.

Now that March is well advanced, frosts can be expected and these could mean the end of housewives’ bottling. So far no New Zealand canned fruit is coming to hand from the Hastings area and items such as peaches are in short supply. Distributors are anxiously awaiting the new crop.

Honey: Some packers In Southland are reported to be experiencing a shortage of honey as the result of bad weather. So far it seems that the Canterbury honey crop is reasonable. Auckland buyers take a considerable amount of honey from both Southland and Canterbury, and, with the poor season in Southland, heavier demands on other districts will be inevitable.

Spices: In recent months overseas prices for spices have been firming and now most packers have found It necessary to pass on the increased costs. The main lines affected <are black and white pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, and in some

and 520 z can* for both Christmas and picnic hams. It is interesting to remember that, when licensing was free a few years ago for this type of commodity, canned hams were imported from Denmark.

Dates: With the arrival of the Chakrata, new season’s dates from Iraq are now in Christchurch. One line which is now being marketed is date cubes. There are also date and almond cubes, which have not been seen here for some time, although In the past they were popular. The pitted date cube is expected to retail at about 3d and the date and almond variety at about 4d; both weigh 2oz. These could add variety to children’s school lunches.