Booklet published by J. Fowler, and issued by Fowlers Vacola Manufacturing Company, titled 'Fowler's Method of Bottling Fruits and Vegetables', 20th edition, 1958.
Fowlers Vacola was a Melbourne based company that made and sold equipment for preserving food, and who provided for their customers a scientifically developed method for preserving, known as the 'Fowler's method' of preserving that used the vacuum principle without need for chemicals. The contents of the booklet includes general instructions on using the equipment, and updated instructions and recipes on how to preserve food, including tropical and sub-tropical fruits and dried or dehydrated fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, sauces, fruit juices and cordials, soups, jams and miscellaneous dishes. It is illustrated throughout with colour drawings and some black and white photographs.
This booklet was issued free with the Fowlers Vacola bottling outfit, which was designed for food preserving, and further copies were only available to be sold to people who already owned a bottling outfit and who could provide a registered number for their steriliser. This restriction was apparently due to the high research costs that Fowlers Vacola incurred when developing recipes suitable to be made with their equipment.
Fowlers Vacola was a company based in Burwood Road, Hawthorn. They had a manufacturing facility and showroom just a few minutes away from Glenferrie Railway Station. The managing director was Joseph Fowler, who had previously co-owned a business in England that specialised in fruit, vegetable and meat bottling, as well as milk pasteurising.
This copy is inscribed with the previous owner's name, Maureen Moffett.
Booklet, 148 pages, blue cover printed with white text and graphics depicting a 'stick woman' climbing down a ladder from a basket of fruit to put a piece of fruit into a jar. The back cover has an illustration of a collection of jars. The pages of the booklet are white with black text and have colour illustrations throughout. A one page leaflet, with red text on white paper, on how to make jam with Fowlers Vacola 'jamsetta' pectin setting mixture, sits loose in the first page.