The Preserving of Pears

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 6

The Preserving of Pears

Tkts ta the sixth of a series of weekly features that ore briny published in This .St A throughout lo.io, describin', some „f New Zealand’s mos, iZ portant industries.

WONDERFUL ORGANISATION IN

AUCKLAND FACTORY

OAVE you ever realised that pears ripen on the trees for ■sfi only about two or three weeks in the summer, vet canned pears can be bought all Jic year round? . means that t.'f canning people have to preserve during a short period of a few weeks sufficient pears to last over the whole twelve months—and the way they do it is a marvel of organisation.

For some reason or other no one ever thinks of fruit in the same connection as industry or hard work, yet the amount df work that, is performed by orchardists and at the fruit preserving factory on locally grown fruit is astounding. Come a short trip through the factory of Thomson and Hills, of the famous Oak” brand. Just at present one whole department is working at top speed at canning pears while they are “m.” A huge amount of extra labour

is necessary and nearly 100 girls are working in this one room.

The visitor finds himself surrounded by fruit in a huge room of white walls | and white scrubbed floors. All is j bright and clean, and the girls work, i in spotless overalls, at long tables deftly grading and peeling the fruit ! . To kee P nearly 100 girls constantly | busy some ingenious organisation is necessary. Great boxes of pears are | received at one end and placed on a ; broad moving belt running down the | centre of each table. I A simple device cuts the ripe fruit into .wo slices and delivers a email ; number to each girl. She quickly peels : 11 and cuts out the core, and’ it is ; whisked along to the end of the table, j graded, and carried on more endless | belts to the washing basins. Here : each piece is carefully rinsed in fresh. , running water and placed in the empty j cans. ! The cans are then taken by another ‘ mechanical belt, filled with luscious ! syrup as they pass a certain point, and | without stopping carefully cooked a j little. Then another clever machine I clamps and seals a lid on each, and these tins are then set in another’huge ! pot and throughly boiled. The result I is the delightful “Oak” Canned Pears. | Nearly 9.000 tins of pears are filled j each day during this part of the sea- ; .son. j The process takes much less time

than it takes to tell. One could quite easily watch a pear taken out of the orchardists case at one end of the room and watch the despatch of the can it is in at the otherThroughout the whole process every possible effort is made to ensure cleanliness and exact work. That these efforts are successful can easily be judged by aynone who opens a tin of •‘Oak” pears at any time during the dull months and enjoys to the full the rich luscious freshness of one of nature’s best fruits, a richness that

™A? tai 2, ed f ? r aII those months by man s efforts m the pear season. wm/TT P ars Messrs - Thomson and T*I*’ 1 *’ have P a fi3 out some thou- ? apd f Pounds to the orchardists of the Auckland Province for the crops of Pea s ‘ rees ’ which ia turn is sold as canned fruit all the year round in every town and village from the North ? ape t , to the Blufr - But for this opening these pears would rot on the around, as the people simplv could at V the eat Y the P ear s that come ripe at the one time.