OUR COUNTRY HOME 



is remarkably polite, she merely answers, " How nice ! " and does 

 not boast of her crop harvested two nights before! With good 

 fortune the peas last until early August, when the dwarf limas begin. 

 It seems to me few people appreciate the lima bean. I am not re- 

 ferring to the fat, wilted, yellow article which one buys in the city 

 markets. That is a libel on the name. Picked when very small 

 and flat and never allowed to grow fat, they are a most delicious 

 vegetable, taking their proper place as the successor to the green pea. 



We find in this climate great difficulty in wintering the French 

 artichoke and we do not try to raise melons. Cooked like celery 

 with a brown or Hollandaise sauce, the Swiss chard is a welcome 

 addition to our. early summer fare. In salad, too, it makes a 

 pleasant change. 



Although mushrooms do not grow in our kitchen garden, they 

 form an important part of our bill-of-fare, for nearly all the season 

 in one corner or another of the place, appear the richly flavored 

 morels, the shaggy-mane and inky coprinus, the well-known field 

 mushroom, the dainty psathyrella disseminata, or the panseolus 

 ritirugis of particularly exquisite flavor. Nothing can be more 

 toothsome than these delicacies from one's own lawn. There is a 

 certain taste about them, an indefinable essence, which tickles the 

 pride as well as the palate. Mushrooms should be cooked very 

 simply. After peeling them we put buttered toast on a flat baking- 

 dish, pour cream over, put the mushrooms on, a dash of pepper 



and salt, and bake for ten minutes. 



90 



