158 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



C 



^^"T'LL tell you 

 "X what I'll 

 do," said 

 the nicest man 

 I know, "If you 

 will be ready by 

 the last of the 

 week I will take 

 you down to 

 Florida for a 



few days." And we were, and he did, and 

 that is" why you are going to be told some- 

 thing about Florida foods this month. 



Let me start by telling you about our first 

 meal on Florida soil, which will always re- 

 main in my recollections as a banquet. Per- 

 haps, in order to make it plain just why it 

 is such a pleasant memory, it will be neces- 

 sary to tell something of our experiences 

 previous to that banquet. After a long 

 delightful day of running among the moun- 

 tains, dodging between them and sometimes 

 taking a header right thru a mountain we 

 (father, mother, fifteen-year-old boy and 

 eleven-year-old girl) arranged ourselves 

 compactly, if not comfortably in our berths, 

 went to "sleep, and expected to awaken in 

 Florida. But morning found our train 

 stranded in the hills of Georgia where we 

 were held 15 hours, waiting for a landslide 

 to be cleared away. But the sun was warm, 

 the scenery beautiful, we were together on a 

 vacation, and we climbed up and down to 

 our hearts' content, incidentally acquiring 

 ravenous appetites. The food question did 

 not trouble me any, that not being my busi- 

 ness when we are traveling, but I noticed 

 that the head of the family seemed anxious 

 to keep us from straying far from the diner 

 about the time brea'kfast should have been 

 announced and wasn 't. When it was finally 

 ready we had a good meal, but later comers 

 were not so fortunate as the provisions gave 

 out, and the chef was not resourceful enough 

 to find any in the neighborhood, altho some 

 of the passengers managed to forage for 

 themselves. After the train finally got start- 

 ed it dropped the diner, probably in Atlanta, 

 where we were given a very few minutes 

 to make a dash for the railroad restaurant. 

 As the waiters there could not see any need 

 of haste, even if there was a trainload of 

 hungry passengers, we had only a sandwich 

 apiece. After that not a bit of food was 

 in sight until nine o'clock in the evening 

 when we finally picked up a diner. By that 

 time I had goiie to bed hungry and declin- 

 ed to arise and accompany the rest to their 

 belated meal. 



The next morning the provider of the 

 family advised me to lose no opportunity 

 for a meal hereafter when traveling, for 

 (would you believe it?) they had cruelly 

 dropped " that diner again in the night. 

 However, as the breakfastless hours wore 

 on I could not see that the others were en- 

 during any fewer pangs of hunger than I. 

 At last we stopped for ten minutes at a lit- 

 tle Florida junction, and the livelier passen- 

 gers sprinted toward a restaurant sign over 



OUR FOOD PAGE 



Stanty Puerden 



1 



March, 1919 



the door of a 

 little shack be- 

 tween the 

 tracks. Inside 

 there was a row 

 of stools in 

 front of a coun- 

 ter all too short. 

 The best run- 

 ners sat on the 

 stools while the others stood behind and ate 

 standing, as if they were at a reception, but 

 with a difference. On the counter were 

 plates of sandwiches piled mountain high, 

 there were thick cups filled with coffee, 

 and condensed milk for the coffee. In front 

 of where we sat, for we were among the 

 good runners, was a great plate of egg sand- 

 wiches. These consisted of a couple of thin 

 slices of bread put together without butter, 

 and on top and extending beyond the bread 

 on all sides was a sort of omelet. I think 

 it was one egg, possible more, beaten a little 

 and then fried and turned in plenty of fat. 

 By the time one ha4 eaten three, as I did, 

 her fingers needed a finger bowl, or rather a 

 bathroom with soap, and there were not 

 even napkins. But the food seemed clean, 

 the eggs were obviously fresh and piping 

 hot, the bread good, and everyone was hap- 

 py. There were other sandwiches contain- 

 ing some kind of meat, but the egg sand- 

 wiches were too good to risk experiments 

 on other varieties. 



I shall have to admit that I have hitherto 

 looked on Florida as a State where they 

 raised profitable crops of tourists and 

 oranges and not much else, and because of 

 the climate a sort of paradise for old people 

 and invalids. Not really considering myself 

 in either class as yet, I have not cared much 

 for the State. Perhaps the fact that my pre- 

 vious visits have been jjreceded by a killing 

 freeze has made me blind to what a won- 

 derful place it is. When we reached St. 

 Petersburg and took the little steamer to 

 cross Tampa Bay to Bradentown the air was 

 so soft, yet invigorating that, like Harry 

 Lauder, it "intoxicated us with bliss." 



Our Ohio friends had said, when told 

 where we were going, ' ' Why should you go 

 to Florida when we are having such warm 

 weather here?" But, believe me, warm 

 January weather in the North with gray 

 skies, naked trees, barren gardens, and mud 

 is nothing like the blue skies, sunshine, 

 fruit, and flowers of Florida. An open win- 

 ter in the North is the kind to run away 

 from. The real thing with snow, ice, and 

 tingling cold weather has charms of its 

 own. 



Of course we went straight to A. I. Eoot 's 

 little home in Bradentown, and of course we 

 found him in his garden and happy. How I 

 did wish for a good camera. But no half- 

 tone could do justice to those long, orderly 

 rows of luxuriant potatoes, the rich green 

 of the foliage contrasting beautifully with 

 the soft ashen gray soil. That soil, by the 

 way, always makes me break the last of the 



