Thanks all the replies. You have made an interesting and informative conversation! Dave, yes. I have spent a lot of time in NZ. At one time, canning, using proper jars (which are marginally heavier than ours and very durable) was very popular. New Zealand was and still is to some degree a very rural country. Like here, canning has been supplanted by freezing. Essentially that mostly explains the lack of supplies now. And I have met a few folk who used to use pressure canners. I think they called them retorts or autoclaves. Carol is right; with BWB canning for such things like jams or chutneys, the grocery food jars work fine. Lack of pressure canning aside, the problem is the shelf life of these products AND the entire loss of canned fruits. Everyone (of a certain age) in NZ remembers their Ma or Grandma or Grandpa canning peaches or plums or other orchard crops. I dont know how they used do Lambs Tongues, for instance, but there must be those who miss those too! Essentially, NZ is an example of somewhere that used to do something that has now been mostly lost. Thanks the freezing tip, Woodsmoke. Some miscreants (like me) actually prefer some things canned. In my case, the canned pate was just a whim; something to do with the livers. I could envision having some small jars of some delicacy, but going through the whole process of making pate frequently from frozen liver isnt so appealing! Additionally, Im not so keen about freezing in general. We can have long power outages as well. Appreciate the tips JimnGinger. I will brine some brisket and freeze it, but again, like the pate, I was envisioning a handy lunch to make from a small jar. I have canned beef chunks, which I like very much, and it occurs to me that I could make these taste like Corned Beef if I wanted. Commercially canned Kippered Herring is very common and popular in Northern California grocery stores. I havent tried to home can any, but home canned smoked fish is very doable. Sardines, Herring, Smelt and Mackerel, Salmon and Tuna... Generally, I have found that home canned fish or meat is far better than what one able to purchase. Canning fish as opposed to freezing it, is, to me, a much much better approach. Thanks again!

>grow and eat a lot of "pumpkins" --- it seems to be the vegetable of choice, in fact. I am dying to know what a Botswana pumpkin is --- Pumpkins are eaten throughout Africa, Zabby. In the southern part of the continent, the pumpkins are most often what are locally called "calabaza", which is a small, white, sweet pumpkin. Butternut squash actually substitutes for it better than any of our "pumpkins." As in: South African Pumpkin Fritters 5 cups cooked calabaza (or butternut) 2 cups grated raw calabaza (or butternut) 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup flour 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon Pinch of salt 1 egg, lightly beaten Oil for deep frying Cinnamon sugar, for dusting Put the cooked pumpkin in a mixing bowl, mash it with a fork, and set aside. Blanch the grated pumpkin by briefly dipping in boiling water. Drain it and add to the mashed pumpkin. Add the baking powder, flour, ground cinnamon, salt and egg to the mixture and beat until it is smooth. Heat oil for deep frying (375F). When hot, drop the batter, a tablespoonful at at time. Be careful not to place too many in the oil at once. ook the fritters until golden brown on each side, turning once. Drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Serve warm. Variation: Add a pinch of lemon zest, a grating of nutmeg, and a tbls sugar to the batter before frying. >I once heard that the cans of pumpkin in the grocery store was actually winter squash - butternut, in fact. Most cans merely say "pumpkin" nowadays. But the most often used squash for canning actually are Hubbards, with Cushaws running a close second. Butternuts are considered by most canners to be too small to fuss with.

Dear Jan, The most popular models in the States, and those of current production and thus easily available parts are the All American, Mirro, and Presto. There are many other old ones but rubber lid seals (like for a Burpee Pressure Canner) are no longer available. The All American is a beefy canner that does not use a rubber seal. It is metal to metal and costs 2 to 3 times as much as a Presto or Mirro. I currently use a 22 quart Presto from the 1980's and it is more than sufficient for my needs. I can fit 7 quart jars into it, double stack pints and half pints for a capacity of 20 to 24 smaller jars, and it has both a pressure guage and a 3 weight guage (5, 10, and 15 pounds) as most recipes in this area call for 10 pound pressure canning at 1000 feet elevation or less. The canner will reach 240 degrees Farenheight at this pressure and this is adequate (and necessary) to kill botulism spores. Pressure canning MUST be used for all low acid foods - primarily all vegetables and meat. Tomatoes are now regularly pressure canned for safety unless enough acid is added to bring the ph of the product down to 4.6 or less. Some tomatoe products in this country test to ph 4.7 or 4.8 which is too high to be safely canned by water sterilization (only 212 degrees Farenheight). By the way, if you use a pressure canner, boiling the jars is not required in advance (just a good wash). If there are those in this Forum who have any questions, please drop me a note. Regards from Southern California - Jim

It's a shame you are not closer to my place. I'd love to have a few different sizes of vacola bottles, etc. Hope they find a good home near you. :)