"Deb" > wrote in message
> "Fran" > wrote in >
> > Just for interest sake, I have the instruction booklet that came
> with my
> > mother's Vacola. (snip)
> >
> Rather like the stories my Dad tells me of how Gramma used to can
> meats and veggies with a wood cookstove and the old fashioned jars.
> All day long stoking the stove and cooking the food for many hours.

Uuuuummmmm. I still use a wood stove all winter for cooking, hot water and
hydronic heating and sometimes I've also used it in summer if the weather is
cool to do my own bottling (canning). I have 2 of the old stove top Vacola
units and they work better on my fue stove (which they were designed for)
than they do on electric hotplates. The hotplates are too close together
and getting the Vacola units to sit flat on them is impossible. My fuel
stove on the other hand, has a full top flat surface of about 4 ft by 3 ft
and I can fit both Vacolas on the top and do a big batch of bottles at the
one time.

I also suspect that the way we do bottling here (jars which use a rubber
ring and then the lid is held closed by putting a temporary "sprung" clip on
over the lid till a seal is formed) may not be too different from how your
Gran used to do it. I know it is certainly no different to how my Gran used
to do it as she also had a Vacola system. (In those days one could get
Mason [???] jars here - the ones with a two part metal lid [???]. I've seen
some in Antique shops and I do recall some in the back of my Aunt's pantry)

> Sheesh, it took me all day just to get the jars ready to stick in
> the canner. Then I only had to watch the gauge for 75 min. I DO
> appreciate how good we have it now. ;>

Well, since I love my wood stove I still think I have it pretty good. I
find that I do a lot of cooking when I have the wood stove lit as I don't
want to waste the heat. I enjoy it a lot unless the winter goes on too
long.

Anyway, since you think your Gramma had it hard, I won't tell you about my
other house where I only have solar power and no hot water unless I light
the wood stove to cook on and to heat the water. Things get a bit difficult
there if the header tank on the hill which allows me to use the water that
is gravity fed to the house runs out of water and I have to go out and bring
it inside by the bucket from a tank under the the gutter - now that is hard!
:-)))