328 Singing Valleys 



Sweet corn is a product of New England. And the best 

 sweet corn is still grown in those six states. Maine and New 

 Hampshire lead off. But Rhode Island corn is famous too, 

 though being a small state she cannot compete with the 

 others in quantity production. At Westport Point, which is 

 one tip of Rhode Island shore looking toward Point Judith, 

 there was a sea captain's widow named Mrs. Manchester who 

 took summer boarders. 



Once a week Mrs. Manchester gave her boarders a boiled 

 dinner boiled lobsters, boiled bluefish, boiled new potatoes, 

 and boiled corn; followed by a boiled pudding of white, water- 

 ground corn meal and blueberries, with more stewed blue- 

 berries poured over the helpings. 



After doing justice to this meal the boarders tottered down 

 to the wharf and spent the afternoon in discussion whether 

 it was the lobsters which gave value to the corn and the pota- 

 toes, or the other way round. I believe that Mrs. Manchester, 

 who had cooked and served the dinner, frequently spent the 

 rest of the day husking and scraping a bushel or two of sweet 

 corn preparatory to drying it for winter use. All the gumption 

 had not been diluted out of the New England blood in her 

 day. 



You have to go to New England, too, for good succotash. 

 And succotash, when it is good, can be very good, indeed. 

 It is not, as some people seem to think, an economical way 

 of using the left-over ears of boiled corn. Succotash should be 

 made of fresh corn, scored from the cobs and put into a pot 

 with some small pieces of salt pork and a very little rich milk. 

 When this is bubbling, add an equal quantity of young lima 

 beans and some salt and pepper. When the beans are tender 

 the succotash is ready for a generous lump of butter and to be 

 served. This method of preparing succotash is to be advised 

 before the original, Indian recipe which was to boil the corn 

 and beans together in a pot with a plump young puppy and a 

 handful of hickory ash for seasoning. 



If New England is the natural habitat of the succotash, 



