258 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



In the North, half that number will be a fair yield 

 before frost cuts short the season. The little 

 fruits are edible, but rather peppery, compared 

 with large ones. The market sizes range about as 

 muskmelons do. 



The egg-plant produces its fruit even though 

 failure of the blossoms to be pollenated results 

 in seedless forms. From the cook's standpoint, 

 this improves the vegetable. 



RED PEPPERS 



The big, green "bell peppers" are now as com- 

 mon as any vegetable, and mild enough to make 

 a most agreeable addition to salads. But their 

 ancestors, and some of their near relatives, are hot 

 as fire, due to a bitter juice that is especially strong 

 in the seeds and the tissues to which they are 

 attached. Cutting out the white "cores" re- 

 moves the burning parts, and the walls of the pods 

 are ready to eat, raw or cooked. They "go with " 

 tomatoes particularly well, each adding a good 

 flavor to the other when stewed together. When 

 ripened, the bell peppers are red and hotter in taste 

 than before, but they are milder still than the little 

 varieties. Peppers seem to be hottest in the 

 smallest kinds. Strangely, it would seem, people 



