The daily gazette., 1879-08-13
COOKED FRUIT BY THE TON.
HOW SUMMER FRUITS ARE TENDERLY
CARED FOR AND PRESERVED AGAINST
WINTER FEAsTs. Y


CARED FOR AND PRESERVED AGAINST
WINTER FEAsTs. =
From the N. Y. World, .-ft-...
Ifsome of those good Knickerbocker
housek eepers who about this season of
the year begin to bother the fruit
stalls and potter with glass tumblers and
stewed fruits, "putting up" the winters
supply of jellies and preserves, could visit
the establishment through which a
WORLD reporter was yesterday instruct
ed to go they would probably open their
mouths as wide IN delighted astonish-
ment as ever did any juvenile supervisor
of their own labors. This was the largest
mandatory of fsyrups and preser yes IN
the city. It's stu ted on the west side
of town and occupies what were formerly
a couple of dwelling houses, but are
now united under a single roof. The
inclined to throw up their hands In holy
horror at the unGidiness of the place.
There are no whitewashed walls, no old
fashioned chimney place, with cake
mantel above, NO smooth-shining deal
tables, no glitter of dairy pans, no well
worn hearth-stOne. not even a solemn
ticking clock in the corner, aud as tor
would ever purr more than once in this
establishment. But when it comes right
down to the preserve making business
there isn't kitchen i'll ChristendOm that
can approach this place. The floors are
unexpected aud not over clean. men rush
in their shit sleeves, and pert young
women, whom no New England house
keeper would tolerate for a day, fly
| hither and tbither, their dresses and
| aprons covered with the stains of fruit
and their arms barred for action. In one
corner are couple of great steam en-
connecting with all sorts of strange
looking machines Set against the wall
is line of great copper tubs around
which, from the engine in the corner,
run coils OF steam pipes. Each boiler Is
SIMPLY large enough to hold all the pre-
serve stew that a dozen ordinary families
would need for twelvemOnth.
And yet they are all continually full,
sending forth in proper seasons the
aroma of peaches, Of plumbs, of straw
berries. This is the establishment, or
rather one of the largest establishments,
from whence the city housekeeper, who
was never intended by nature to make
preserves, draws her sweet-meat sup
plies. The probabilities are that she
dosen't known this fact herself, having
always found them when needed on the
| grocers shelves, but this great untidy
place Is nevertheless where they come
from. To be sure the Wholesale preserv-
ing and canning business is compare
| lively new industry, but like many
modern things, it is colossal. Very
polite was the proprietor of this estab-
lishment to the reporter, letting him
snuff and taste the flavor of longforgot>
ten fruits, and showing him the minutest
workings OF the business. On one side
of the room were huge casks of olives
swimming still in the brine into which
TREY had been dropped in Spain. No
olives, the proprietor said, are ever i'm
ported except in this way. 1t is the
duty of the preserve manufacturers ia
rescue them from this unsavorv bath
and bottle them in more appetizing
~ suppose" said the reporter, "there
are seasons of the year when you find
nothing to can or preserve and are
obliged to take a vacation"
"No," replied The preserver, "you
would think so, but that isn't the case.
or vegetables aud we are kept pretty
busy all the year around"
"For instance, what do you begin
with?"
"Well, the preserver's year properly
begins In April, when we take hold OF
asparagus" (The parlance of the trade
seems to admit of no other expression
than "taking hold of the various mate
rials.) "Then," he continued, sin May
we take hold of pineapples. Soon after
this strawberries come along. We do
great deal with strawberries. We pre-
serve them like this .holdiDg up a glass
, Jar in which straw berries perfectly ln-
tact were seen floating about, and we
make jelley of them, and lastly we ex'
! tract the juice for syrup"
3 "Where do you buy your fruit?" asked
the reporter. "Ah, that is one of the
! great features of the preserver's trade
There is everything in buying. We
watch the shipments to this city and
keep our eyes open for glatiday. Fruit,
YOU know, won't keep and as we wont
] buy 1T when it is all damaged, there is
] lust certain moment when the bargain q
3 has to be struck. The fruit dealers hold
3 on to the last minute, hoping to get bet
/, and their fruit all the same time. The
result is we usually manage to get all we
want at our own prices. Alter straw
berries come cherries. We take hold OF
o great many cherries. The great DIM
!, Guilty in preserving cherries used to pe
3 the number of hands and the length o.
e time 1t took 10 pit them. We've had 5Ot
D girls in this place at one time pitting
: cherries fiom morning till night, am
o even then it was slow work. SO after q
while we saw We hpd got to set our witt
to work or give up the cherry business
| IQ6 T6Sulb Vi Jul piohuhhh !" 40 o.Ao 40
Q yentlon of this machine. We hold tht
= patent for 1t and we wont sell one fol
{ less than $5,OO0," So saying the proprie.
: tor pointed out to the reporter an inof
b fensive looking concern which the latte
D was informed could take the stones ou
of cherries so fast that 125 girls couldn'
G. pull the stems from them rapidly enougl
2 to keep the machine employed. 1t hat
= an immense roller covered with littl'
cups Just large enough each to hold
+ | single cherry. When the machine is IL
motion system of brushes sweeps thu
fruit into these little receptacles. In the
z bottom of each cup Is hole sufficiently lJ
large to admit the passage OF the pit: A
the roller rsvolves lumber OF little lau
4 Gets running in and out of the cups stai
the fruit and permit the stones to fall ou
through the holes described. This time
and labor saving arrangements Is said Il
n be able to take the stones from eight tom
of cherries in ten hours. Since during
n the cherry season it is keptrunning from
: morning to night it serves perhaps bette
thau anything else to illustrate The ex
T tent of this wholesale preserving busi
ness. ~
"After cherries" continued the willini
Informant, "we take hold of curfants AM
black berries. Don't do much with cur
i. rants except jelly" (rhere was q laconi
tiDge about the conversation which to
hearer was only tascinating) "Curran
l l. rs.,