PLANNING SIDE-LINE PRODUCE 139 



plenty of rabbit, pheasant, quail, 'possum, and 

 'coon for fresh eating, but also a sufficiency of deer 

 and bear to salt and smoke. Outside the game sea- 

 sons such animals as the woodchuck, rated no 

 higher than vermin yet one of nature's finest deli- 

 cacies, bolsters the fresh meat supply. Not much 

 progress has been made in the state against the 

 entrenched industrial interests that convert our 

 streams and rivers into open sewers. Nevertheless 

 there are still some fish to be had; in spring the 

 near-by Delaware offers shad and herring in quan- 

 tities and at local prices that make salting worth- 

 while. 



Of edible wild fruits and vegetables there is 

 almost no end. If you are particularly interested 

 in this subject I commend you to Kephart's * chap- 

 ter on it, which I shall not spoil for you here. 

 Sometimes it seems to me we neglect this side of 

 the food supply; yet a tabulation of the wild stuff 

 we regularly and habitually use presents a rather 

 astonishing total. In the spring there is the dande- 

 lion, much in favor as a salad with a hot bacon- 

 fat dressing; and the most successful of our assays 

 in the field of beverage alcohols. Dandelion wine 

 is not the sort of thing one could or would drink 

 by tumblerfuls. It resembles a pale, sweet sherry, 

 and makes an acceptable "cake-and-wine" drink; 



i Horace Kephart, Camping and Woodcraft, New York, Mac- 

 millan, 1927. 



