FRUITS FOR WINTER USE. 115 
FRUITS FOR WINTER USE. 
MRS. G. H. PRESCOTT, ALBERT LEA. 
(Read before the Southern Minnesota Horticultural Society.) 
This is a question which confronts us every summer and must be prac- 
tically met, or we shall regret it the following winter. 
Apples must be picked carefully, wrapped in paper, packed in barrels 
and put in cold storage. 
Currants for winter use, if canned while green, make excellent pies. Of 
course, everybody makes jelly of ripe currants. For the sake of variety I 
pick currants when half ripe and perfectly dry, crush with a potato masher, 
strain through flannel and then to ene pint of juice add one pint of granu- 
lated sugar, stirring until entirely dissolved, then put into glasses and set 
in the sun until thickened. This cold process insures the currant flavor, 
which is often practically lost in boiling. Years ago housekeepers did not 
consider themselves ready for winter without several jars of ‘dyspepsia 
breeding” preserves. Very little canning was done. Expensive cans were 
one reason, and ignorance of the proper methods of canning another. I 
think the reverse is the rule now. Cans of all sizes are plentiful and cheap, 
and each housekeeper has a good way of successfully canning fruits for 
winter. : 
I will give my way of preparing strawberries, red and black raspberries 
and blackberries. Pick the perfectly ripe berries in the middle of the day 
while they are very dry, fill the cans full of the fruit, wet a folded cloth, and 
laying this in the bottom of a kettle place the filled cans on it; have ready a 
hot syrup made of granulated sugar and fill the cans with the syrup; then fill 
the kettle with hot water. Let it boil until they are well heated through. 
’ Be sure the cans are full to the brim. Put on the covers, screw them tight- 
ly and lifting from the kettle wrap them in brown paper to keep them from 
the light. 
To can tomatoes, select ripe tomatoes, pare, cut in thick slices and re- 
move as many seeds as convenient. Put in a porcelain kettle and cook 
nearly enough for the table; put in glass cans while hot and screw the covers 
on tightly. 
For apple sweet pickles, pare, quarter and core one peck of sweet ap- 
ples. Take three pounds of sugar and one quart of vinegar; boil, skim and 
add a teaspoonful each of cloves, cinnamon and allspice carefully tied in a 
bag made of thin cloth. Cook the apples in this mixture until tender. Put 
into cans so they will keep better than in jars. Peaches are excellent pickled 
and canned in this way. Weigh the peaches after they are pared. To every 
ten pounds of fruit, use four pounds of sugar, one quart of vinegar, one 
tablespoonful each of whole cinnamon, mace and cloves. Put the sugar 
into a porcelain kettle with a teacupful of hot water, boil and skim, and then 
add the vinegar and spices tied in a thin sack. Put the peaches in this 
liquor, and when they are thoroughly cooked fill the cans quite full with the 
peaches and syrup. Screw on the covers while hot. I do not like dried 
fruit, consequently do not dry any. 
