62 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 191& 



SUCCESTIONS FOR. 



Conducted" c €g/_> 



EFFIE M . ROBINSON 



I OFTEN wonder why housewives will buy ahead 

 of the season. Why be so impatient? Why not 

 allow nature to perfect her work? Why not 

 find out what is really and truly in season in 

 your own neighborhood, instead of expecting im- 

 possibilities? Do you not expect your gardeners 

 to give you their best labor and the best fruit of 

 their labor? Then show them that you can 

 appreciate quality and refuse to use forced and 

 therefore tasteless articles. 



Foods Forced Out of Season 



NOW I say aim for quality in fruits and vege- 

 tables before anything else. The right 

 season by Nature is the right flavor and the right 

 use to which the article is put in your body. But 

 instead, just as soon as anything appears, people 

 rush' to buy irrespective of season. Strawberries, 

 for instance, are displayed in the windows fre- 

 quently when the snow is on the ground, but they 

 are forced to sell and picked unripe and have no 

 flavor or aroma or sweetness. 



These forced fruits and vegetables cost a fancy 

 price too, and one is really almost inclined to be- 

 lieve that it is greatly a matter of pretension that 

 makes people buy poor, flavorless stuff out of 

 season. 



Again the High Cost of Living! 



I UNDERSTAND that there is to be a regular 

 monthly bulletin issued to help the housewife 

 by giving the proper things in season and prices. 

 This would supply another "long felt want." It 

 would also help the tradesman. Things now are 

 demanded out of season greatly through ignorance. 

 There is such a continual supply of " newlyweds" 

 with mighty little knowledge of housekeeping, and 

 its important branch, marketing. The poor trades- 

 man is bewildered, but wants to please his cus- 

 tomers; he therefore gets things out of season or 

 greatly in advance of the season, and has to pay a 

 big price for them. The customer, of course, has to 

 pay a bigger one and up goes the much talked of 

 "high cost of living." Truly there are many 

 reasons for that domestic bugbear. 



During the real summer months no one can want 



more variety than can be obtained from one's own 

 garden or market. There is so much of everything 

 that the peddlers peddle and the people pick and 

 every one revels in the wealth of fresh garden stuff. 

 A grumbler in summer is surely almost unheard of, 

 except maybe the butcher! Meat used in quantity 

 in the heat of summer is hardly necessary, as it 

 makes a concentrated and highly nitrogenous food, 

 and should only be used sparingly in conjunction 

 with vegetables which contain the salts and also 

 supply necessary bulk which assists digestion. 



Fish as a Substitute for Meat 



FISH, either served plain or as a salad, makes 

 a useful change and can be used once or twice 

 a week, cutting out meat altogether that day. I 

 learned a delicious way to cook halibut the other 

 day, and sliced cod could be served the same way. 

 Have the halibut cut in slices about three quarters 

 of an inch thick, wash the fish, lay the pieces side 

 by side in a rather deep pan, and pour on sufficient 

 milk to cover them, sprinkle with salt and pepper 

 and bits of butter — it will take about two ounces 

 of butter — and one gill of milk, then bake till the 

 flesh turns white and opaque and separates easily 

 from the bone, when gently tried with a skewer. 

 Lift the fish out carefully and keep hot on a dish. 

 Use the liquid in making melted butter sauce to 

 be served with it. The flavor of the fish is 

 retained better than if it is boiled. In fact, I 

 hardly ever boil fish, instead I steam it. So much 

 of the flavor of the fish goes into the water if boiled. 

 I do not use a steamer, either; I put the fish on an 

 agate plate on top of a saucepan of boiling water, 

 sprinkle the fish with salt, cover closely and steam 

 till cooked through, as described above. 



An Emergency Dessert 



THE other day company arrived quite unex- 

 pectedly for lunch, and almost at lunch time, 

 and I gave them, among other things, a dessert 

 that they pronounced excellent. I happened to 

 have some cold boiled rice left over from the curry 

 of the day before. So I looked with quaking heart 

 at my stock of cans in my closet, and my relief 

 was great to find I still had some canned pineapple. 



For this dessert you must keep a supply of canned 

 Hawaiian crushed pineapple — slices or chunks 

 will not do. I took my can of pineapple, measured 

 out one cupful, then took the same sized cup and 

 filled that quite full of boiled rice, mixed them in a 

 deep, cut glass or fancy bowl, added half that same 

 cup of granulated sugar. I had a half pint bottle 

 of cream on the ice — so quickly whipped that to 

 a very stiff froth and stirred it in lightly. Then 

 I put that on top of my ice in the refrigerator to 

 get it as cold as possible while I served the first 

 course of the luncheon. If you have a few mara- 

 schino or candied cherries or ratifia biscuits they 

 look pretty placed on top for decoration. The 

 fresh pineapples can also be used but I find the 

 already crushed so good that it is not necessary 

 to trouble to grate the fresh. 



Cleaning and Keeping of Fruits and Veg- 

 etables 



MANY of the fruits that we grow in our gar- 

 dens seem to belong together. For instance, 

 raspberries and red currants; the sweet of the 

 raspberry counteracts the acidity of the cur- 

 rants and makes a most refreshing combination. 

 All berries should be washed carefully; in fact, all 

 vegetables and fruits that are to be eaten raw should 

 have particular attention. For instance, the rasp- 

 berry is deceiving because it seems about the cleanest 

 berry we have. But I have to pick them over 

 one by one and look in the heart of each, for there is 

 an insect that curls itself up inside the raspberry, 

 and just washing will not dislodge it. Even if 

 you pick your fruits and vegetables from your own 

 garden and know who has touched them you always 

 wash them; but you may not have everything you 

 want in your garden and then have to buy from 

 the men who come around with their carts or at 

 the markets and imagination leads me to do strenu- 

 ous cleansing processes! I pick over berries and 

 small fruits carefully, then have a kettle of boiling 

 water ready, put the fruit in a colander, pour boiling 

 water over, one dash as it were, and quickly plunge 

 them into cold water. If this is done quickly, 

 there is absolutely no taste of cooking as some 

 people claim. 



(Continued on page 64) 







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This May 

 Interest You 



Somebody in your town is going to get 

 a substantial increase in his income for 

 representing this company. Looking 

 after our renewals, getting new subscrib- 

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 ness of The Garden Magazine — Will you 

 help by sending us the name of someone 

 who can do this work? — Thank you. 



Address Circulation Department 



DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 



Garden City, New York 



All foods advertised in this department have been tested and approved by Effie M. Robinson. They are also sold and recommended by the Doubleday, Page & Co. Cooperative Store 



