348 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1909 



COOKIW 



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Suggestions for Cooking Peas 

 and Beans 



PEAS ought not to be kept for more than five 

 or six hours from the time they are picked 

 until they are eaten. In case it is necessary to 

 keep them over night spread them on a cloth on 

 the floor of a cool cellar; or if they are so far gone 

 as to be stale or wilted, put them in cold water for 

 an hour after shelling, and add a little sugar to 

 the water while they are boiling. In order to have 

 them retain their sweetness and color while cooking 

 allow plenty of slightly salted water, cook only 

 until they are tender and drain immediately. 



French cooks prepare peas in a double boiler 

 with lettuce leaves to provide the juice and a very 

 young onion to give flavor. They also cook them 

 with bits of bacon. 



The following are some ways of using peas so 

 as to provide variety: 



In omelet. — Cook one pint of peas in salted 

 water, drain and keep hot. Make an omelet of 

 four beaten eggs, four tablespoons of the water 

 in which the peas were cooked, butter, salt and 

 pepper. Sprinkle some of the peas on the omelet 

 and fold; butter the remainder of the peas and 

 place around the omelet in the dish. 



Griddle cakes. — One cupful of mashed and 

 seasoned peas, a half cup of milk, one beaten egg, 

 one-half teaspoonful of baking powder and one- 

 quarter cup of flour. 



COOKING DRIED PEAS AND LIMAS 



One of the best ways of disposing of a surplus 

 of garden peas is to dry them when they have 

 reached full size but are still green and have a 

 good flavor. Canning is a troublesome process 

 in the heat of summer, and there is the added 

 disadvantage of a much larger bulk to be stored 

 for winter use than when the peas are dried, and 

 there is also the expense for the jars. 



As soon as the height of the season is past, we 

 pull up the vines and strip off the pods. After the 

 vegetables are shelled and picked over, we spread 

 them very thinly on mosquito netting laid on a 

 wire screen, the latter being raised a few inches 

 from the table. A covering of mosquito netting 

 is placed over the vegetables and they are dried 

 in an airy room; in less than a week they will be 

 sufficiently dry to rattle. As a further precau- 

 tion against storing them for the winter with any 

 moisture left in or on them, collect the peas and 

 keep them in bowls in a warm, dry closet for some 

 time. Make sure of a free circulation of air while- 

 drying so as to prevent the possibility of molding 

 and keep away flies and other insects. After they 

 are dried we sort them into grades — green, ripe, 

 and medium. 



A unique way of preserving green peas for winter 

 use is recommended by an Australian seed cata- 

 logue. Shell and put into a wide-mouthed bottle. 

 Shake well to make as compact as possible, then 

 cork closely and seal. Bury in the driest part of 

 the garden and dig up as wanted. 



Before cooking soak the dried peas in cold 

 water over night; parboil in water with a pinch 

 of baking soda, then change the water and cook 

 till tender, season with butter, salt and pepper. 



A most delicious soup is made of one pint ol 

 the dried peas to a quart of cold water, with an 

 onion, a carrot, a bay leaf and a small quantity 

 each of celery and parsley, a speck of thyme and 



clovers, a thin slice of salt pork (and a ham bone 

 if liked). Set over a good fire and when it has 

 reached the boiling point, place it on the stove 

 where it will cook slowly. When done, strain. 



With bacon. — Boil dried or old peas with a piece 

 of bacon until done. Put the peas into a baking 

 pan, slice the bacon, place on top of the peas, and 

 set in the oven for a half hour. 



Limas may also be dried in the pods, and are 

 fully as good as when the beans are dried sepa- 

 rately. Spread singly on netting screens in the 

 garret, and leave until perfectly dry. They should 

 be soaked over night before being cooked, covering 

 with fresh water in the morning. Two hours, or 

 less, before meal time put them on the stove in 

 boiling water and cook for thirty minutes; then 

 drain and cover with fresh boiling water containing 

 one-eighth teaspoon of baking soda. Cook until 

 tender, and add salt, pepper and butter. 



New York. I. M. Angell. 



Why Not Have a Rockery 



I THINK that rock gardening must always be 

 costlier here than in England. True, English- 

 men may have to pay as much for rocks as we, 

 but skilled labor costs more here and we must take 

 artificial means to cool the atmosphere. A first- 

 class rockery is a complicated structure because 

 it must provide ever)' kind of exposure, many 

 kinds of soil, a perfect water supply, and perfect 

 drainage. But a good one is worth all it costs. 



The great drawback to the rockery is the diffi- 

 culty of cooling the rocks and atmosphere. The 

 obvious way is to shade the rock garden by means 

 of overhanging trees. Unfortunately, shade is fatal 

 to the finest alpine flowers. Our only hope, I 

 believe, is to use water freely. This is costly, I 

 admit, but there is no use in doing things by halves. 

 We must have plenty of water anyhow, for seven- 

 tenths of the art of rock gardening is to give the 

 plants a never-failing supply of moving — not 

 stationary — water. There is an immense amount 

 of talk in English books and papers about lime- 

 lovers and lime-haters, but if we can only get a 

 perfect water supply I believe we can cut out 

 nearly all that pottering with special soils. Witness 

 the best alpine garden in America (Mrs. Higgin- 

 son's at Manchester, Mass.) where the gardener 





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told me he never put a bit of lime into any compost. 

 An idea got at the Cambridge Botanical Garden 

 filled me with great hope. The scholarly and 

 ingenious curator, Mr. R. Irwin Lynch, was 

 making a rockery in which the central feature was 

 a well. The paths all lead naturally to this moist, 

 cool spot where a person could get a drink of 

 fresh, cold water and admire the flowers on all 

 sides and above him. The rocks, soil and air 

 were all pleasantly cool and moist — not damp 

 or sour. The moisture is expected to rise bv 

 capillarity through all the stones to the very top, 

 without interfering at all with the quicker down- 

 ward drainage through the soil. 



I am well aware that Mr. William Robinson 

 frowns upon connecting water features with rock 

 gardening and I must confess that most of the 

 lakelets, cascades, etc., which I saw in England 

 in connection with rock gardens were unpleasing 

 or even ludicrous. Yet Mr. Lynch's idea seems 

 to me adapted to our life in three ways. It has 

 the practical advantage of quenching thirst. It 

 has the cultural advantage of keeping the rocks 

 cool instead of hot. It has the aesthetic advantage 

 of supplying a dramatic conclusion to the whole 

 effort. A well at the lowest point seems natural, 

 and since the highest walls surround it, there is 

 sure to be grateful shade in the heat of the day — 

 a point we Americans appreciate. The heated 

 period of the English day is only three hours or 

 so; with us it is nearer eight. 



New York. Wilhelm Miller. 



A rockery effect with ferns which seem to be 

 growing directly out of the rocks 



Transplanting in Hot Weather 



DURING hot weather people are often deterred 

 from filling gaps in the flower beds and 

 borders by the fear that if plants are moved they 

 will die from the heat before they have had a 

 chance to become established. Of course, one 

 can wait for a rainy day, but I have hit upon a 

 plan whereby plants may be moved at any time 

 during the hot weather. 



Every spring I save all rakings of grass and 

 leaves, and put them in a pile to form leafmold. 

 When transplanting I make the hole for the 

 plant about two inches deeper than is really 

 necessary, in which T place a layer of about an 

 inch and a half of the partly decomposed leaves, 

 having first wet them thoroughly with water. I 

 then fill in the hole with soil, and when setting 

 the plant use a dibble to make the hole for the 

 roots. 



The wet leaves put the moisture jusf where the 

 plant most needs it — at the roots. The ground 

 does not become caked around the roots, as is 

 often the case when water is poured into the hole, 

 but the moisture from the leaves is drawn to the 

 surface by capillary attraction and the soil remains 

 loose and' moist around the plant for several days. 



When lifting be sure to get as many of the roots 

 of the plant as possible, and be especially careful 

 not to expose them to the wind or sun while out of 

 the soil. 



Minnesota. M. I. D. 



