1262 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
October  6,  1923 
WOMAN  AND  HOME 
From  Day  to  Day 
At  Eventide 
I  walk  at  eve  with  God  in  the  garden, 
Tranquil  after  the  burning  day ; 
For  all  my  errors  He  grants  me  pardon, 
And  all  my  burdens  lie  takes  away. 
For  well  He  knows  there  I  raise  Him 
altars ; 
He  understands  that  my  work  is 
prayer. 
(Within  my  plot,  as  in  Eden’s  garden, 
lie  walks  at  even  and  finds  it  fair 
— B.  A.  s.  in  New  York  Tribune. 
* 
Who  can  give  us  instructions  for  mak¬ 
ing  vinegar  from  Concord  grapes?  We 
are  told  that  it  is  harder  to  make  vine¬ 
gar  from  grapes  than  from  other  fruit, 
as  a  putrefying  slime  will  form  that 
prevents  the  acetic  ferment.  Several 
readers  have  expressed  a  desire  to  use 
grapes  in  this  way. 
* 
The  following  is  an  excellent  New 
England  recipe  for  tomato  catsup :  One- 
half  peck  of  tomatoes,  cut  up,  two  table¬ 
spoons  of  salt,  one  of  pepper,  one-half 
tablespoon  each  of  ground  mustard,  all¬ 
spice  and  cloves,  and  one  pint  of  cider 
vinegar.  Cook  until  tomatoes  are  very 
soft,  then  pass  through  sieve.  Return 
to  fire,  and  cook  until  sufficiently  thick¬ 
ened.  Seal  in  bottles  while  hot. 
* 
Dried  fruit  must  be  put  away  care¬ 
fully  if  it  is  to  keep  over  the  season. 
There  is  always  risk  of  insects  getting 
in  it,  if  not  in  tight  containers.  It  should 
be  kept  in  a  cool,  dark  dry  place,  and 
should  be  stored  preferably  in  several 
small  lots  rather  than  one  large  mass. 
Pasteboard  cereal  cartons  are  excellent 
to  store  it  in,  but  a  strip  of  paper  should 
be  pasted  around  the  crack  of  the  lid, 
so  that  insects  cannot  enter,  or  the  lid 
should  be  sealed  with  melted  paraffin.  If 
put  in  paper  bags  the  neck  should  be 
folded  over  and  tightly  tied,  and  the  bag 
should  be  put  inside  another  bag.  either 
of  stout  paper  or  muslin.  When  dried 
fruit  is  stored  in  paper  or  pasteboard, 
it  is  very  necessary  to  protect  such  con¬ 
tainers  from  mice  and  rats.  But  then 
there  is  no  real  reason  why  rats  and 
mice  should  be  given  all  the  comforts  of 
home,  in  any  case. 
* 
Apple  relish  may  be  made  quite  late 
in  the  season,  if  green  peppers  are  pro¬ 
curable.  It  calls  for  12  apples,  two 
onions,  three  green  peppers,  one  cup 
seeded  raisins,  1*4  cups  brown  sugar, 
one  lemon,  half  a  tablespoon  powdered 
ginger,  a  pinch  of  salt  and  two  cups  of 
vinegar.  Core,  peel  and  chop  the  apples, 
1  eppers  and  onions,  add  the  sugar,  vine¬ 
gar,  salt,  ginger,  raisins  and  lemon 
sliced  thin  and  the  seeds  removed.  Mix 
thoroughly  and  cook  for  two  hours.  Then 
bottle  and  seal. 
All  the  Year  Mincemeat 
A  correspondent  asks,  page  282,  for  a 
recipe  for  homemade  mincemeat.  The 
following,  handed  down  from  grand¬ 
mother’s  time,  can  hardly  be  surpassed, 
though  the  Eighteenth  Amendment  has 
made  a  few  changes  necessary :  One 
pound  fine  lean  beef  or  tongue,  simmered 
t  ill  tender  and  chopped  fine ;  2  lbs.  of 
suet,  chopped ;  2  lbs.  of  tart  apples, 
chopped ;  2  lbs.  of  raisins,  chopped 
slightly ;  a  few  whole  ones  may  be  dis¬ 
tributed  through  the  individual  pies;  2 
lbs.  of  currants;  V-2  lb.  citron;  %  lb.  of 
candied  orange  peel ;  juice  and  grated 
peel  of  one  lemon  ;  2  lbs.  of  sugar,  brown, 
if  preferred:  one  cup  of  Porto  Rico  mo¬ 
lasses;  one  glass  of  currant  jelly;  one 
teaspoon  each  of  nutmeg,  cinnamon, 
mace,  and  allspice;  V2  teaspoon  of  gin¬ 
ger  and  cloves;  2  teaspoons  of  salt;  one 
quart  of  sweet  or  boiled-down  cider,  or 
the  juice  from  canned  fruit  or  sweet 
pickles.  Mix  and  scald  thoroughly  and 
pack  in  glass  jars.  For  plainer  pies, 
use  a  larger  proportion  of  apple.  Chopped 
nuts  may  be  substituted  for  the  meat,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  with  excellent  results. 
Nuts.  figs,  dates  and  candied  fruits  help 
to  enrich  the  famous  Christmas  pies  of 
a  certain  club  in  New  York,  which  makes 
a  specialty  of  this  article. 
Personally  I  no  longer  use  meat  in 
mince  pies,  preferring  something  lighter 
and  less  taxing  to  the  digestion.  Our 
standby  is ; 
Green  mincemeat.  Put  green  toma¬ 
toes  through  the  meat-chopper,  sprinkle 
with  salt  and  let  them  drain  over  night ; 
to  each  quart  add  one  pint  of  chopped 
apples  and  one  orange,  juice  and  chopped 
rind,  and  simmer  two  hours.  Add  1  lb. 
of  raisins  or  mixed  dried  fruit,  three  cups 
of  brown  sugar,  three  tablespoons  of 
mixed  spices,  one  cup  of  chopped  suer. 
Vz  cup  of  vinegar.  Boil  one  hour  and 
put  up  in  quart,  cans. 
Summer  Mince  Pie. — 'Half  cup  of  mo¬ 
lasses,  %  cup  of  vinegar,  one  cup  of 
sugar,  one  cup  of  chopped  apples,  two 
tablespoons  of  butter,  one  cracker,  rolled 
fine,  one  egg,  beaten,  %  cup  of  raisins. 
Notes  From  a  Busy  Oklahoma  Home 
Again  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of 
another  school  year,  which  means  care¬ 
ful  planning  and  contriving  of  ways  and 
means  that  the  four  children,  now  all  in 
high  school  except  the  youngest,  may  be 
able  to  keep  their  places  in  school.  This 
year  has  been  one  which  has  called  for 
much  thought  on  the  part  of  poor  people, 
as  to  the  future.  Owing  to  the  extreme 
dry  weather  the  yield  of  most  crops  will 
11078.  Design  for  bedspread;  a  flower  basket  15  inches  wide  by  23  inches  high,  four 
corners  11  inches  long  at  the  outer  edge,  and  two  sprays  4 y2  by  13  inches.  Transfer 
pattern  20  cents. 
one  teaspoon  of  allspice,  two  teaspoons 
of  cinnamon.  Cook  together,  adding  a 
little  water  if  needed.  Bake  between 
crusts,  or  with  a  lattice  work  top.  This 
will  make  two  pies. 
Another  good  recipe  calls  for  one  cup 
of  rolled  crackers,  one  cup  of  molasses, 
one  cup  of  sugar,  two  tablespoons  of 
butter,  two  cups  of  boiling  water,  half 
cup  of  vinegar,  one  cup  of  chopped  ap¬ 
ples  or  peaches,  one  cup  of  chopped 
raisins,  three  teaspoons  of  mixed  spices. 
Bake  as  above,  rachel  f.  daiilgren. 
be  very  light.  Wheat  and  oats  yielded 
fairly  well  but  prices  were  so  low  that 
little  profit  was  realized ;  corn  has  been 
cut  very  short  by  dry  weather  and  cot¬ 
ton,  our  principal  money  crop,  has  been 
struck  by  the  boll  weevil,  so  that  not 
more  than  half  a  crop  is  expected.  Cot¬ 
ton  picking  begins  in  September,  and 
this  means  that  the  women  and  children 
will  be  busy  in  the  fields  until  the  crop 
is  harvested.  Most  of  our  rural  schools 
stop  one  to  two  months  for  the  cotton¬ 
picking  season. 
Just  now  the  three  older  daughters  are 
fixing  to  go  away  to  their  schools,  all  of 
them  going  back  to  same  places  where 
they  taught  last  year.  When  I  see  so 
many  people  unable  to  find  positions 
whereby  they  will  be  able  to  earn  an 
honest  living,  I  feel  truly  glad  that  my 
daughters  are  qualified  to  fill  good  posi¬ 
tions  and  can  fill  them  so  well  that  they 
are  able  to  hold  their  places  from  year 
to  year.  Of  course  we  hear  the  usual 
cry  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  our  teachers 
are  underpaid  ;  however,  I  feel  that  $125 
per  month  is  fair  pay,  especially  so 
when  many  strong  men  are  working  for 
less  than  half  that  amount. 
The  canning  season  has  been  very  easy 
in  Oklahoma  this  year,  and  hundreds  of 
empty  jars  will  be  carried  over  because 
there  was  no  fruit  to  fill  them.  However, 
most  housewives  have  so  much  canned 
stuff  left  from  last  season  that  no  short¬ 
age  will  be  felt  this  Winter.  Some  locali¬ 
ties  had  good  crops  of  peaches  while 
others  had  none  at  all,  and  pears,  plums 
and  cherries  were  scarce.  Apples  will 
be  rather  plentiful,  and  we  plan  to  fill 
many  jars  with  these,  to  be  used  for 
making  pies,  or  as  dessert  during  the 
Winter  and  Spring. 
A  timely  rain  has  made  it  possible  to 
plow  land  and  sow  turnips,  and  since 
we  have  a  greens-eating  bunch  there  has 
already  been  one  patch  seeded  to  turnips 
with  mustard  mixed  in,  and  another  is 
being  got  ready.  Late  beans  planted  a 
few  days  ago  are  up  and  unless  an  early 
frost  happens  along,  they  will  furnish 
messes  for  the  late  Fall.  Fall  gardens 
thrive  in  Oklahoma,  and  when  it  rains 
early  in  August  most  farm  women  plant 
late  vegetables  for  Winter  use. 
All  farm  produce  has  dropped  in  price 
and  farmers,  as  a  rule,  are  very  much 
discouraged.  Many  country  merchants 
refuse  to  buy  eggs  at  any  price,  while 
others  are  offering  only  seven  cents  per 
dozen.  Hogs  and  cattle  will  not  pay 
for  their  feed,  yet  there  is  no  sale  for 
them,  and  they  must  be  kept  on  the 
farms  until  a  market  opens  up.  With 
high  feed  prices  surplus  stock  becomes 
a  liability  to  the  farmer.  Most  farmers 
in  this  section  produce  their  own  meat 
and  lard  as  well  as  food  and  feed  crops, 
and  in  this  way  they  are  enabled  to 
bridge  over  during  the  strenuous  years 
such  as  the  present  has  been. 
Eastern  Oklahoma  is  an  agricultural 
section,  and  farmers  depend  solely  on  the 
Mother 
Knows 
COSTS  MORE 
WORTH  IT! 
OCCIDENT  Flour  is  made  from  only  the  choicest  por¬ 
tion  of  the  finest  wheat  grown. 
Every  kernel  in  every  bushel  of  that  carefully  selected 
|  wheat  is  washed  and  scoured  before  it  goes  through  the 
long  and  thorough  OCCIDENT  Special  milling  processes. 
Then  there  is  unrelaxing  vigilance  at  every  stage  of 
manufacture,  including  the  baking  of  bread,  to  make  ab¬ 
solutely  certain  that  OCCIDENT  Flour  will  fulfill  our 
guarantee  of  better  bread,  or  money  back. 
That  is  why  OCCIDENT  Flour  is  so  wholesome  and  so 
nourishing  and  why  so  many  women  of  long  baking  ex¬ 
perience  insist  upon  it. 
Order  this  better  flour  for  your  next  baking  day.  Make 
as  many  bakings  as  you  wish  and  if  you  do  not  find 
OCCIDENT  to  be  better  than  any  other  flour  you  have 
ever  used  return  the  unused  portion  of  the  sack  and  get 
your  money  back. 
If  you  don’t  know  your  nearest  OCCIDENT  dealer 
write  us. 
RUSSELL-MILLER  MILLING  CO.  General  Offices,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
SOMETHING  TO  THINK  ABOUT 
We  operate  12  flour  mills — two  in  Minneapolis, 
eight  in  North  Dakota  and  two  in  Eastern  Mon¬ 
tana — with  a  combined  daily  capacity  of  13,500 
barrels  flour  and  500  tons  wheat  mill  feed.  Our 
wheat  storage  facilities  are  ample  to  permit  of 
careful  selection  of  the  choicest  hard  wheats,  in¬ 
suring  uniform  flour  quality  over  the  entire  year. 
Wheat.storage  capacity — 10  country  mill  elevators, 
1,000,000  bushels;  3  terminal  elevators,  8,750,000 
bushels;  140  elevators  situated  in  the  heart  of  the 
hard  wheat  belt  of  North  Dakota  and  Eastern 
Montana,  4,000,000  bushels — total  combined  ca¬ 
pacity  13,750,000  bushels.  These  facilities  for  sup¬ 
plying  the  best  hard  wheat  flour  are  unsurpassed. 
The  Guaranteed  Flour 
