This old type is great for off grid use. Electric wouldn't work for us. I have just purchased a stainless steel unit.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Glad you have found a cheaper local source - our local source has "dried up" and I notice that rings on eBay are currently more expensive than buying direct! At lest FV are fast and reliable.

Sorry, didn't weigh them!

Ball is harder to get now

Yes, and we also have an Aussie copy - www.aussimasonpreservingjars.com.au/ . But Fowlers Vacola have been around here for over a 100 years and are what our parents/grandparents used. Plenty of secondhand jars and equipment available!

This system has been the mainstay of Aussie bottling for more than 100 years, developed by a British immigrant in Melbourne. There's been some rumblings about incorporating some US methods lately though, like checking acidity etc. My opinion of this is that since the last couple of generations of food processed in factories, some home skills (and common sense) around preserving have been lost. Corporations and regulations around a lot of things have somehow convinced us that we're not capable of doing for ourselves, plus these life skills are not always being handed down through families and community. Anyway, enough of my ranting - point being that I haven't heard of anyone dying from consuming tomatoes preserved this way, citric acid or not.

Fowlers vacola do recommend using citrus acid or lemon juice when bottling tomatoes.

No, the Italians have been bottling tomatoes without it for a long time! Also I reduce the water content which concentrates the natural acidity. If bottling a "low-acid" tomato the citric acid could be advisable.

What do you do that’s different?

@@AlecL well our jars are also in 3 pieces but they’re generally jar, lid, and band. No gasket. The gasket is built into the lid. The lids are flat. For low ph food like tomatoes, we also don’t cover the jars and have to use a pressure cooker. For pressure canning only about 3-4” of water at the bottom of the pot is required. If I remember correctly, tomatoes are like 35lb pressure at sea level. I think the canning book also recommends putting a squirt of lemon juice into each jar as well. I don’t remember the processing time for tomatoes. The basics are essentially the same but the majority of the process to get there is a lot different. I haven’t done tomatoes in about a decade or so, so I might be off a bit. I’ve seen a lot of different methods from different regions of the world. This is the first time I’ve seen this particular method. They look wonderful tho.

I've seen a lot of videos by US homesteaders using basically the method you've described here and the thing that stands out most to me is having to do all those calculations - pH, sea levels, pressure measurements. It all seems very complex. That said, I've recently watched something where your Amish communities use time rather than pressure cooking to safely preserve their foods. As an example, 3 hours water bathing for canning meats.@@LordThree

@@cbjones2212 yes. Time is definitely a key factor, and yes, it does seem excessively complicated with pressure canning. Unfortunately I think they make it that way purposefully, to discourage people from processing their own produce. This makes me curious about the ownership of the “ball blue book” and I may look into it. I think their claim is “these are the only methods approved by the FDA” or some such nonsense. Most people know by now that the FDA is a complete farce. 🙄

Yes, we do dried beans that way. Have tried other veggies but not so happy with the results.

@@homesteadingI’ve only recently got into it with Fowlers jars. I’ve only done pumpkin soup and a couple of jars of potatoes. So far all good but it seems to bugger the rings though so can’t reuse them

@@AlecLthat’s strange regarding the rings. I’ve done potatoes and tomatoes without any damage. I actually use my Fowlers jars in my pressure canner as well as water bathing.

I wash my bottles and lids in the dishwasher. I also reuse my rings. They are mostly ok for a few more goes.

@@whatever9770yeah ok that’s interesting. Maybe because I’m using new but old stock rings. They seem fairly stretched after using in pressure canner.