NOVEMBER 203 



described ; and they are really delicious, just as if they 

 had been freshly picked in August. 



I suppose everybody knows that Jerusalem Artichokes 

 are much better if left in the ground and only dug up as 

 they are wanted, though before hard frost they must be 

 •dug up and housed. This vegetable is amongst the most 

 useful ones we have in the winter, as it can be cooked in 

 such a great number of ways. It is one of the things 

 much improved by growing from fresh seed, and not 

 planting the old tubers over and over again. The 

 Artichokes can be made into soup, can be pur^e'd like 

 Turnips, or fried in thin slices like Potato chips. ' Dainty 

 Dishes ' has one receipt for cooking them. The only way 

 in which they are not very good is the ordinary Enghsh 

 way — plain boiled, with a floury butter sauce. The best 

 way of all is aw gratin, like the Maccaroni-cheese in ' Dainty 

 Dishes ' ; only they require more sauce. Everything au 

 gratin is very much improved by using half Parmesan, 

 half Gruyfere, and a very small piece of shallot. I used 

 to think this plant, from its name ' Jerusalem ' being 

 derived from the Italian Girasole, with its curious English 

 amplification into ' Palestine Soup,' was perhaps the only 

 Simflower {Helianthus) that had not come from America, 

 and might have been brought here by the Crusaders ; but 

 all this is not the fact. It does come from America ; and 

 a curious confirmation of the same is that the IVench 

 name is Topinamhour, a corruption of Topinambout, a 

 native tribe in the Brazils, whence the plant comes. 



November 6th. — The last few days there has been 

 quite a hard frost, and last night our garden thermometer 

 registered ten degrees. This means, of course, death to 

 everything not quite hardy ; and even the hardiest hang 

 their heads, and flop their leaves and look dying, though 

 we know it is only affectation, and that a steady rain, 

 bearing in every drop heat from the tropics, will revive 



