August, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



615 



D' 



3 



OUR FOOD 



Stancy Puerden 



ur 



when 1 reatl 



of the never 

 ending and fu- 

 tile arguments, 

 debates, and 

 speeches of the 

 Senate I am fill- 

 ed with such 



feelings of indignation that I would never 

 dare try to put them into words'? Lan- 

 guage adequate to the situation would in- 

 evitably send Our Food Page straight to 

 the metaphorical woodshed and the com- 

 pany of M. A. 0. Apparently it is quite 

 all right for women to sacrifice everything 

 that makes life worth living for this war. 

 It does not matter that there are thousands 

 of mothers whose hearts are breaking with 

 fear and dread of what the war has in store 

 for their boys — young wives whose hus- 

 bands have gone, girls who have bidden their 

 sweethearts goodbye, for how long? perhaps 

 forever. But it would never do to deprive 

 the drinking man of his beer. He is ac- 

 customed to it as part of his daily diet. So 

 are we housekeepers accustomed to serve 

 wheat in some form three times a day to our 

 families, but we are obediently substituting 

 at least three wheatless meals a week in the 

 interests of food conservation. We are also 

 learning to use less meat and do without 

 many other things to which we have long 

 been accustomed, and we make these small 

 sacrifices gladly. But we think it only fair 

 for the beer-drinkers to give up their beer 

 and thus release 70,505,488 bushels of valu- 

 able grains (the brewers' own figures) for 

 food purposes. And, as Dr. Wiley points 

 out, " It would not be a sacrifice at all, but 

 a blessing, and not even in disguise." 



Isn't it a pity that those senators who, 

 for weeks, have blocked the efforts of our 

 president to have the food-control bill pass- 

 ed, and were willing to have the manufac- 

 ture of beer continued, could not be set to 

 making war gardens, running windmills, or 

 some other useful work? Also I should 

 love to set those misguided suffragists, who 

 have been annoying our overburdened presi- 

 dent and hurting the cause of equal suffrage 

 by picketing the White House, to work in a 

 kitchen, canning fruits and vegetables. 

 Such energy and endurance should not be 

 wasted. 



A DRY SUBJECT. 



How are your war gardens getting along? 

 Have you canned any of your surplus vege- 

 tables or fruit yet ? This month I am going 

 to devote a part of my space to a dry talk. 

 You may think I have done so in two senses 

 of the word already, but now I mean a food- 



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drying talk. 

 The Department 

 o f Agriculture 

 is urging house- 

 keepers to dry a 

 part of the sur- 

 plus instead of 

 canning it. 

 There are sever- 

 al good reasons for this. In the first place, 

 it is going to be difficult to get enough 

 cans, either glass or tin, before the season 

 is over; dried foods are fully equal to can- 

 ned foods in nutriment; many people con- 

 sider them equal or even superior in flavor; 

 they require less time to prepare; they take 

 up less storage space, and they can be stored 

 in receptacles which would not answer for 

 canned foods. 



For years dried corn has been a favorite 

 dish in the Puerden family. The children 

 say I never cook enough of it at a time to 

 satisfy them. Start the drying process by 

 going to the garden after the corn yourself. 

 It must be just right for the table — young, 

 sweet, and tender. Never dry corn that is 

 a little old or that has been gathered long. 

 We think there is no sweet corn worth plant- 

 ing in our garden but Golden Bantam. Boil 

 or steam it on the cob eight to ten minutes 

 to set' the milk. Drain and cut the corn 

 from the cob, using a sharp and flexible 

 knife, cutting only half way down to the 

 cob. Scrape out the rest of the grain, be- 

 ing careful not to include any of the chaff. 

 My fourteen-year-old son accuses me of in- 

 consistency. He says I advocate more bulk 

 or cellulose in the diet, and yet I object to 

 eating corn cob. Spread the prepared corn 

 in shallow layers on trays, and dry in any 

 preferred way. I have had delicious dried 

 corn by drying it in the sun, but this meth- 

 od is somewhat slow, the product is rather 

 dark, and the weather is not always favor- 

 able. I have tested an evaporator consist- 

 ing of a shallow tin tray above a deeper 

 one containing boiling water. This seemed 

 to cook the corn rather than dry it, and 

 much of it was wasted by sticking to the 

 tin. I now use shallow tin trays in my gas- 

 oven, running only one burner turned very 

 low and with the oven door open. The corn 

 should be stirred occasionally to make it dry 

 evenly. I also contrive to dry corn in the 

 warming oven during baking. If you have 

 any left after serving green corn on the cob, 

 cut it off and put it into the warming oven 

 and it will soon be ready to add to your 

 store. When corn is dry, but not hard, con- 

 dition it by storing it in boxes and pouring 

 it from one box to another once a day for 

 three or four days before putting it away 

 in vour storeroom. 



