Updated October 2026
How to Preserve a Garden Glut in Australia
Match the method to the food's acidity. For most low-acid vegetables in an Australian kitchen, that means the freezer.
Fruit, jam, vinegar pickles and tomatoes with added acid can be bottled in a boiling water bath or a Fowlers unit run at a full boil. Beans, corn, pumpkin, carrots and other low-acid vegetables cannot: Australia's Food Safety Information Council says vegetables are only safe to bottle at home in vinegar. Freeze them, dry them, pickle them from a tested recipe, or, for cabbage, make sauerkraut. Use the picker below for the best way to keep each crop.
Water bath bottling
Jars of high-acid food boiled for a tested time. For fruit, jam, vinegar pickles and tomatoes with added acid only.
Pressure canning
The only tested way to put low-acid vegetables, meat and stock in a jar, using a pressure canner and a USDA time.
Fermenting
Salt and lactic acid bacteria sour the food. Sauerkraut and fermented dill pickles have tested methods.
Freezing and drying
Blanch and freeze, or dry at 60°C. The simplest and most forgiving methods.
The safety rule
Food at pH 4.6 or below (fruit, acidified tomatoes, vinegar pickles) can go in a water bath. Above pH 4.6, botulism spores survive boiling, so the jar needs a pressure canner or the food goes in the freezer. Food Standards Australia New Zealand lists badly processed home bottled food as a higher risk food for botulism. Australian vinegar can be as weak as 4%, and Australian tablespoons hold 20 ml, so measure acid in millilitres and read the vinegar label.
What to do with this glut
Choose the crop you have too much of.
The methods, briefly
Bottling: the tested times come from the USDA, the only agency that has tested home bottling. Jars over 946 ml have no tested time. See passata and bottling and jam.
Pickling: keep the tested recipe's vinegar to water ratio and never water it down. Pickling guide.
Fermenting: sauerkraut at 45 ml of pickling salt per 2.25 kg of cabbage, 21 to 24°C, 3 to 4 weeks. Sauerkraut guide.
Freezing: blanch for the tested time and freeze at -18°C. Freezing guide.
Drying: 60°C for fruit and vegetables, after an acid dip for fruit. Dehydrating guide.
Pressure canning: possible with an imported canner and USDA times. Pressure canning in Australia.
The preserving year
Seasons shift a lot between Hobart and Darwin. In the south, summer and early autumn bring tomatoes, stone fruit, beans and zucchini; autumn brings apples, pears and quinces; winter is citrus and cabbage. In South East Queensland the big vegetable harvests come in the cooler months, and in Darwin the dry season is preserving season. Find My Region gives the calendar for your postcode.
Sources we checked (October 2026): Food Safety Information Council, Home bottling and canning; Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Clostridium botulinum; Food Standards Code Standard 2.10.1; CSIRO, Preservation of vegetables and herbs in oil; USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning (2015) and the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Common questions
Is home bottling safe in Australia?
For high-acid food processed for a tested time, yes. Plain vegetables and meat are not safe in a water bath or Fowlers unit; freeze them or pickle them.
What is the easiest way to preserve a glut?
Freezing. Blanch vegetables for the tested time, or freeze fruit and tomatoes raw.
Can I reuse jar lids?
Not the flat self-sealing lids, which seal reliably only once. Jars and screw bands can be reused if undamaged. Fowlers jars need new rubber rings.
How long does preserved food keep?
Bottled food about a year in a cool, dark cupboard; dried food 6 to 12 months; frozen fruit and vegetables 8 to 12 months; sauerkraut several months in the fridge.