A CHAT IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



155 



than they are usually for boiling in summer. 

 Lima beans are so easily grown and pre- 

 pared for wiruer use, and are so truly ex- 

 cellent, that my family usually dry enough 

 for use every other day all winter ; and 

 they are so fresh and tender (being soaked 

 in warm water for 12 hours before cooking,) 

 that I have frequently some little difficulty 

 in persuading my guests at a dinner in the 

 holidays, that I have not a forcing house 

 for beans, with the temperature of Lima all 

 winter. 



Ed. That is an easy and simple pro- 

 cess, and its excellence we well know from 

 experience. But, best of all, and most rare 

 of all, is the tomato, as we have eaten it 

 here, in und-winter. As we have seen 

 many trials in preserving this capital ve- 

 getable for winter use, nearly all of which 

 were partly or wholly failures, pray let us 

 into the secret of your tomato formula, 

 which we promise not to repeat to more 

 then eight or ten thousand of our particular 

 friends and readers. 



Sub. You are heartily welcome to tell 

 it to twenty thousand. It is a real discovery 

 for the gourmand in winter, who loves the 

 pure, genuine, unalloyed and delicious acid 

 flavor of the Sola?ium Ly coper siacm, and 

 knows how greatly it adds to the piquancy 

 of a beef-steak, done to a second, and re- 

 posing, as Christopher North would say, 

 in the mellow richness of its own brown 

 juices. 



Ed. Do'nt grow so elegant over the re- 

 membrance as to forget the modus ope- 

 randi of drying. Remember we must stake 

 our reputation on its being equal to the 

 genuine natural berry, when it is of the 

 colour of cornelian, and plucked in the dew 

 of a July morning. 



Sub. I remember. First, — gather the 

 tomatoes. 



Ed. When ? 



Sub. When they are quite ripe, least 

 full of water, and most full of the tomato 

 principle ; that is to say, in sunny weather 

 in July or August. If you wait till Sep- 

 tember, or, rather, till the weather is so 

 cool that the fruit is watery, you will fail in 

 the process, for want of flavor. 



Ed. Go on. 



Sub. Choose tomatoes of small or only 

 moderate size. Scald them in boiling wa- 

 ter. Next, — peel them, and squeeze them 

 slightly. Spread them on earthen dishes, 

 and place the dishes in a brick oven, after 

 taking the bread out. Let them remain 

 there till the next morning. Then put 

 them in bags, and hang them in a dry 

 place. 



Ed. That is certainly not a difficult 

 process, and may be put in practice every 

 baking day by the most time-saving farm- 

 er's wife in the country. And the cooking? 



Sub. Is precisely like that of the fresh 

 tomato, except that the dried tomato is 

 soaked in warm water a few hours before 

 hand. For soups, i: may be used without 

 preparation ; and a dish of this vegetable, 

 dried in this way and stewed, is so exactly 

 like the fresh tomatoes in appearance and 

 flavor, that he must be a nice connoisseur 

 in such matters who could tell in what the 

 difference consists. 



Ed. We can vouch most entirely for 

 that ; and after thanking you for the detail, 

 have only to regret that we could not have 

 published it in mid-summer, so that all our 

 readers could have had a fine dish of to- 

 matoes when the thermometer is down be- 

 low zero. 



Sub. By steadily pursuing the tomato 

 drying every baking day in July and Au- 

 gust, we get enough to enable us to use it 

 freely, and even profusely, as a winter ve- 

 getable ; not as an occasional variety, but 

 a good heaping dish full very often. 



