The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1171 
Things  to  Eat 
Eat  Honey,  Talk  Honey,  Live  Honey 
Did  you  ever  hear  anyone  say  it  costs 
a  lot  to  live?  It  does  cost  money  and 
labor,  unless  you  are  a  parasite.  How 
few  of  the  complaining  humans  ever  work 
like  bees  or  with  bees !  Watch  them  for 
a  while  and  see  their  industry.  They  say 
a  clover  blossom  contains  less  than  one- 
eighth  of  a  grain  of  sugar.  In  a  pound 
of  honey  there  are  7,000  grains.  Con¬ 
sequently  a  bee  to  make  a  pound  of 
honey,  must  visit  56.000  separate  clover 
blossoms.  Each  clover  has  about  60 
florets  or  flower-tubes,  and  the  bee  must 
suck  sweets  from  every  one  of  these. 
Wouldn’t  we  all  help  to  make  the  world 
sweeter  and  more  peace-loving  if  we 
worked  as  persistently  as  the  bees? 
Every  householder  should  have  bees — 
the  honey  is  one  of  the  purest  foods  we 
can  eat — no  germ  harmful  to  humans 
has  been  found  in  honey.  Honey  is  good 
for  many  of  the  ills  flesh  is  heir  to  and 
the  system  and  industry  of  the  hive  is 
inspiring.  Anyone  can  start  in  a  small 
way  by  taking  care  of  a  stray  swarm, 
which  is  annoying  someone. 
We  started  with  a  swarm  which  came 
from  the  school-house — hut  they  were  not 
educated  beyond  what  they  inherited.  We 
to  the  jar.  Have  ready  and  boiling  one 
quart  vinegar  and  one-half  cup  salt.  Wrap 
cloth  around  jar  and  pour  in  slowly  to 
allow  vinegar  to  filter  in  around  cucum¬ 
bers;  fill  to  overflowing,  put  on  rubbers 
and  seal.  Turn  jar  over  and  roll  it  to 
allow  all  cucumbers  to  get  the  action  of 
vinegar  and  salt,  and  they  will  be  fine 
dills.” 
The  following  directions  for  making 
dill  pickles  are  given  in  Farmers’  Bulle¬ 
tin  1159,  “Fermented  Pickles,”  issued  by 
the  United  States  Department  of  Agri¬ 
culture  at  Washington  : 
For  making  dill  pickles  in  the  home, 
use  stone  jars  or  clean  watertight  kegs  or 
barrels.  If  a  four-gallon  jar  is  used, 
proceed  as  follows :  Place  in  the  bottom 
a  layer  of  dill  (stalks  and  leaves)  and 
one-half  ounce  of  mixed  spice.  Wash 
cucumbers  of  uniform  size,  and  fill  the 
jar  to  within  2  or  3  in.  of  the  top.  If 
they  can  be  obtained,  it  is  well  to  lay  a 
layer  of  grape  leaves  both  at  the  bottom 
and  the  top.  They  make  a  suitable  cov¬ 
ering,  and  are  believed  to  have  a  greening 
elfect  on  the  pickles.  Pour  over  the 
pickles  a  brine  made  as  follows :  Salt, 
1  lb. ;  vinegar,  three-fourths  quart,  and 
water,  10  quarts.  Cover  with  a  plate  or 
This  picture  was  taken  some  years  ago  in  a  Pennsylvania  potato  field.  It  represents 
a  group  of  potato  pickers.  That  is  the  way  the  work  was  done  in  those  days,  when 
labor  was  more  plentiful.  Now’  there  is  a  great  demand  for  a  machine  that  will  dig 
potatoes  and  pick  and  load  them.  Several  machines  of  this  sort  have  been  put  on  the 
market.  They  pick  and  sort  and  load,  but  the  trouble  is  they  bruise  too  many  of  the 
potatoes — bruise  them  so  badly  that  they  wrill  not  keep  well.  A  safe  potato  picker 
seems  to  be  as  difficult  to  find  as  a  cotton  picker. 
now  have  15  hives  in  the  apiary,  and  the 
New  Jersey  Bee  Keepers’  Association 
met  at  the  Lupton  Apiary  in  June,  1920, 
and  June,  1923.  ^These  are  pleasant  oc¬ 
casions  when  a  great  deal  is  learned,  for 
there  is  no  end  to  what  there  is  to  be 
learned  about  bees  and  honey  production. 
A  half  ton  of  honey  a  year  is  about  all 
we  care  to  handle,  but  the  bees  are  do¬ 
ing  more  than  making  a  marketable  crop 
— they  are  pollenizing  our  fruits  and 
vegetables  as  well  as  our  neighbor's.  Two 
hundred  acres  of  farm  land  adjoining  us 
was  sold  a  few’  years  ago,  and  took  away 
one  of  the  bee’s  feeding  grounds.  The  200 
aeres  are  now  used  as  a  nursery  and  are 
of  no  value  for  honey  production  though 
the  bees  may  get  some  material  for  feed¬ 
ing  the  younger  bees. 
Here’s  the  slogan  of  the  future :  “Eat 
honey,  talk  honey,  live  honey.” 
New  Jersey.  cora  j.  sheppard. 
Dill  Pickles 
The  following  recipe  which  wre  printed 
last  year,  has  been  asked  several  times 
of  late.  It  is  a  tested  recipe  from  Mrs. 
H.'  L.  D. :  .  .  , 
“My  wTay  of  making  dill  pickles  in  the 
home  is  as  follows :  Use  four  or  five 
gallon  jar  and  rain  water.  Put  in  salt 
and  stir  to  dissolve  it.  When  the  water 
gets  pretty  tasty  with  salt,  it  is  enough. 
Then  put  in  a  layer  of  dill,  stalk  and 
leaves,  some  grapevines  and  leaves,  and 
then  the  cucumbers.  If  you  have  bought 
them  in  quantities,  put  them  up  at  once, 
or  if  you  have  your  own  vines,  add  to 
them  from  day  to  day  as  you  pick  them. 
Midway  in  the  jar  put  in  more  dill  and 
grapevines,  and  cover  the  top  with  grape 
leaves,  then  with  a  cloth  tucked  down 
well  around  the  edges.  Then  put  in  in¬ 
verted  plate  or  small  pieces  of  board  and 
weight.  Usually  I  set  mine  oil  cellar 
floor,  and  don’t  disturb  till  holidays.  Then 
skim  off  carefully,  remove  weight  and 
plate,  take  the  cloth  off  carefully  and 
wash.  Take  out  a  dozen  or  twro  of  the 
pickles  and  a  little  brine  to  keep  them  in 
until  they  are  used,  and  cover  the  remain¬ 
der  as  in  the  first  place. 
“To  prepare  dill  pickles  in  two  quart 
jars,  sterilize  jars  and  covers.  Leave 
cucumbers  in  cold  water  over  night,  or 
bring  them  in  fresh  from  the  vines.  Put 
dill  in  bottom  of  jars  and  pack  in  cucum¬ 
bers.  Put  in  some  small  ones  to  fill  in, 
and  I  like  three  or  four  pickling  onions 
board  with  a  weight  on  top  to  keep  the 
pickles  well  below’  the  brine.  The  pick¬ 
les  should  be  kept  in  a  tempei’ature  of 
about  86  degrees,  which  will  induce  ac¬ 
tive  fermentation.  Fermentation  should 
be  complete  in  10  days  to  two  weeks. 
A  scum  soon  forms  on  the  top,  which 
should  be  skimmed  off.  After  active 
fermentation  has  ceased,  the  cucumbers 
should  be  protected  against  spoilage.  One 
method  is  to  leave  the  cucumbers  in  the 
keg  or  jar,  and  cover  with  a  layer  of 
paraffin,  poured  over  the  surface  hot ; 
w’hen  cool  it  will  make  a  solid  coating 
over  the  pickles,  which  seals  effectually. 
If  preferred  the  pickles  may  be  sealed  in 
glass  jars  as  soon  as  sufficiently  cured, 
and  covered  with  fresh  brine  which  has 
been  heated,  the  brine  made  as  before. 
Hot  brine  is  never  used  at  first,  as  it  will 
kill  fermentation. 
If  dill  pickles  are  desired  in  barrel  lots, 
only  clean,  tight  barrels  should  be  used. 
Wash  cucumbers  and  fill  the  barrel,  add¬ 
ing  from  6  to  8  lbs.  of  green  or  brined 
dill,  or  half  that  amount  of  dried  dill, 
and  one  quart  of  mixed  spices.  The  dill 
and  spices  should  be  evenly  distributed  at 
the  top,  bottom  and  middle  of  the  bar¬ 
rel.  Add  also  one  gallon  of  vinegar.  Pre¬ 
pare  brine  in  the  proportion  of  Ms  lb.  of 
salt  to  the  gallon  of  water.  Head  the 
barrel  tight,  and  through  a  hole  in  the 
top  pour  in  brine  until  it  overflows  the 
head  and  is  level  with  the  top  of  the 
chime.  This  level  must  be  maintained  by 
adding  more  brine  as  required.  Remove 
the  scum  which  soon  forms  on  the  sur¬ 
face.  During  the  period  of  active  fer¬ 
mentation  the  barrel  should  be  kept  in  a 
warm  place,  and  the  hole  in  the  head 
should  be  left  open  to  permit  gas  to  es¬ 
cape.  When  active  fermentation  is  over, 
as  indicated  by  a  cessation  of  frothing 
and  bubbling,  the  barrel  may  be  plugged 
tight  and  stored  in  a  cool  place.  The 
pickles  are  ready  for  use  in  about  six 
weeks.  More  brine  should  be  added  if 
any  leaks  away,  as  it  is  important  to 
exclude  air  by  keeping  the  barrel  entirely 
filled  with  brine. 
If  it  is  desired  to  keep  the  pickles  for 
a  long  time  a  stronger  brine  is  desirable. 
A  30  degree  brine,  made  by  adding  10 
ounces  of  salt  to  the  gallon  of  W’ater,  is 
used  under  such  conditions.  If  the  bar¬ 
rels  are  filled  and  tight,  kept  in  a  cool 
place,  pickles  will  keep  a  year  in  this 
brine,  but  they  will  not  keep  if  air  is 
not  excluded. 
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