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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1918 



kind things about Our Food Page the 

 haughty editors are nice to Stancy. But if 

 I keep on with the work it is not to please 

 the editorial staff. It is because I so much 

 appreciate the kind letters which come to 

 me. It is an inspiration to think I am 

 gaining friends in many different sections of 

 our country, and even in foreign countries. 

 Let me assure every subscriber that Our 

 Food Page is at his service in every way 

 possible. 



Oh, yes, I nearly forgot to tell you how 

 to pronounce Puerden. Most people in our 

 town call it Pure 'den. People here are too 

 busy for three syllables, and, not being fa- 

 mous, we do not try to accent the last 

 syllable. You know grand opera stars have 

 been known to change the accent of a name 

 to the last syllable on becoming celebrated. 

 * * * 



The New Ruling as to Wheat Substitutes. 



Are any of you concerned about the ruling 

 that we must buy a certain per cent of wheat 

 substitute every time we buy wheat flour? 

 I don't know what the proportion will be bj'- 

 the time this reaches you, but even if it 

 should be fifty-fifty it is not going to be so 

 difficult. Many of us have been using a very 

 large percentage of wheat substitutes for 

 some time, and the new rule will tend to 

 equalize the burden. It has been hardly fair 

 to those of us who are patriotic and loyal and 

 substitute cornmeal, oatmeal, rye, rice, po- 

 tatoes, barley, buckwheat, etc., for a large 

 part of the wheat when there are people, ig- 

 norant or wilfully disloyal, who have been 

 using meat three times a day, white flour 

 exclusively and wasting food. To illustrate, 

 let me tell you a little story of a colored 

 washerwoman. She said she and her hus- 

 band used meat three times a day, but she 

 finally became convinced that they ought 

 to practice conservation at least once a 

 week, and so they are using only dried beef 

 and crackers for supper Saturday night. She 

 is too ignorant to realize that those are the 

 very foods needed to be shipped abroad — 

 meat, wheat and fat. Evidently she does 

 not fancy conservation desserts, for when 

 she goes out to work she supplements her 

 dinner by pie brought from home, and 

 throws part of the crust in the garbage pail. 

 * * * 



A Honey Story. 



Now I am going to stop talking conversa- 

 tion for a few minutes to tell you a true hon- 

 ey story. One morning a certain mother of 

 four children was in the kitchen frying grid- 

 dle cakes, while her husband and the chil- 

 dren were eating them in the dining room. 

 The father poked his head into the smoke- 

 laden air of the kitchen and said, "Do we 

 get any honey this morning?" "Why, no," 

 said the mother, "I thought we could get 

 along one morning without honey." "Then 

 you come in here and settle these children," 

 said the farther firmly, "and I will take your 

 place in the kitclicn."' I imagine the father 

 in this story will add beekeeping to his ac- 

 complishments next summei'. 



Before leaving the subject of honey, let 

 me urge all of you to read two articles by 

 Alfred McCann. One is on sugar and is in 

 the February number of Physical Culture, 

 and the other is on honey and is to appear 

 in the March issue of the same magazine. 

 He puts the case for honey more strongly 

 than I would dare. If dietitians keep on 

 saying such fine things about honey, may be 

 we shall live to see the day when honey is 

 our best known sweet, as it was in antiquity. 

 * * * 



Before giving recipes, may I say a few 

 words more about the home grinding of 

 wheat and other cereals? You know many 

 of our foremost authorities on foods have 

 much to say about the present methods of 

 milling which deprive us of some of the 

 most valuable constituents of the grains, the 

 soluble minerals, vitamines and body regu- 

 lating substances. Even graham flour is 

 sometimes made by combining a poor grade 

 of white flour with bran, in which case it 

 is not a true whole wheat flour. I am not 

 blaming the millers. They furnish what they 

 believe the public wants, and the public 

 needs to be educated to prefer grains as 

 nature intended them for us. In the mean- 

 time you can make a good grade of whole 

 wheat fiour with one of the little hand grist- 

 mills on the market, and you may also en- 

 joy the whole cornmeal con twining the germ, 

 which is usually removed from the com- 

 mercial cornmeal to make it keep better. 

 Perhaps you think it seems a step backward 

 in civilization to take such work back into 

 the home. We may be thankful if this war 

 does not force us to take several such back- 

 ward steps. 



With our mill, which is one of the smaller 

 ones, we find if we set it to grind coarsely, 

 and then put the resulting coarse meal thru 

 a second time, we get a more evenly ground 

 ])roduct than if we attempt to grind it fine 

 the first time. Also I find it is difficult to 

 make light bread if I use entirely home 

 ground whole wheat flour. We like it com- 

 bined with about half white flour. The 

 home-ground cornmeal makes fine muflins, 

 johnnycake and cornbread with the old- 

 fashioned flavor which we have missed in 

 much of the modern cornmeal. 



The recipes given below calling for whole 

 wheat flour were tested with the home 

 ground flour. 



Notice that several of the recipes call for 

 rolled oats. If you have never tried it you 

 will be surprised to find how good oatmeal 

 is in bread. It makes a very tender crust, 

 and the bread is of fine texture and light in 

 color. You may use it with white flour alone 

 or combine it with part whole wheat. The 

 Food Administration advises the preliminary 

 scaliling to more thoroly cook the oatmeal. 



OATMEAL BREAD. 



2 cui)s rolled o;it.s V2 cake dry yeast sof- 



2V2 cups boiling potato tened in 



water 14 cup warm water 



r; teaspoons salt Whole wheat flour 



1 tablespoon honey Wliitr flour 



(Continued on .Idrcrdtiinff Pages.) 



