A CHAT IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 425 



the next morning. Then put them in bags, and hang them in a 

 dry place. 



Ed. That is certainly not a difficult process, and may be put 

 in practice every baking day by the most time-saving farmer's wife 

 in the country. And the cooking ? 



Sub. Is precisely like that of the fresh tomato, except that the 

 dried tomato is soaked in warm water a few hours beforehand. 

 For soups, it may be used without preparation ; and a dish of this 

 vegetable, dried in this way and stewed, is so exactly like the fresh 

 tomatoes in appearance and flavor, that he must be a nice connois- 

 seur in such matters who could tell in what the difference consists. 



Ed. We can vouch most entirely for that ; and after thanking 

 you for the detail, have only to regret that we could not have pub- 

 lished it in midsummer, so that all our readers could have had a 

 fine dish of tomatoes when the thermometer is down below zero. 



Sub. By steadily pursuing the tomato drying every baking 

 day in July and August, we get enough to enable us to use it freely, 

 and even profusely, as a winter vegetable ; not as an occasional va- 

 riety, but a good heaping dishful very often. 



Ed. What is to be done with these small green melons which 

 I see your man gathering in his basket ? It is so late now that 

 they will not ripen, and they are the perquisites of the pigs, doubt- 

 less. 



Sub. You never made a greater mistake. For the pigs ! Not 

 if they were Westphalia all over. Why, that is the most delicious 

 vegetable we have, at this season of the year. " Butter would not 

 melt in your mouth" more quickly than that vegetable, as you 

 shall have it served up on my table to-day. 



Ed. Pray, what do you mean ? 



Sub. That these tardy after-crop musk-melons, trampled under 

 foot and fed to the pigs, are the greatest delicacy of the season. 



Ed. Fricaseed, I suppose ; or " cut and dried," for winter 

 use! 



Sub. By no means ; but simply cut in slices, about the fourth 

 of an inch thick, and fried exactly in the same manner as egg 

 plants. Whoever tastes them so prepared, will immediately make 

 a memorandum that egg plants are thenceforward tabooed, and that 



