28 American Agriculturist, July 12, 1924 
How I Canned Fruits, Vegetables and Meats Last Year 
Readers of the Household Page Give Helpful Suggestions — Midsummer Patterns 
U NTIL three years ago I used wash- 
boiler and wire rack for lifting jars 
and cold packed all meats, fruits and 
vegetables. 
Then we bought a steam cooker, hold¬ 
ing fourteen jars, and canning products 
of the farm has been a joy ever since. It 
is imperative that rules for various steam 
or pressure cookers be followed, but a 
few general rules obtain. A cheesecloth 
sack is best to blanch in. Berries and 
soft fruits need no blanching, but all 
other fruits and vegetables should be 
immersed in boiling water from 4 to 5 
minutes, then in cold water, drain and 
pack in clean hot jars. (I rinse and stand 
jars in hot water while filling.) Add 
boiling syrup or water, dip rubbers in 
boiling water and place on jars; partially 
seal. Place in boiler (on wire or wooden 
rack) or steam cooker, sterilize by boiling 
required time, remove and seal. 
Although jars are cleansed when 
emptied and put away clean, it is neces¬ 
sary to re-wash them when preparing to 
can, and covers must be boiled at least 
one half hour to insure killing germs and 
spores that cause fermentation. 
To each quart of meat or vegetables 
add one teasjfbon of salt, half spoonful 
to a pint, before cooking. The first 
spring delicacy canned in our farm kitchen 
is dandelion greens—instead of blanching 
I clean and boil them until wilted, pack 
in jars, add teaspoon of salt and steam or 
boil three hours, then seal./ 
Asparagus, corn, peas, lima beans and 
okra string beans seem to keep best when 
canned in pints—-all requiring three 
hours cooking. Succotash, also Dutch 
corn (corn and tomatoes) are sure to 
keep if corn and beans, also corn and 
tomatoes are boiled in open kettle 
separately, 5 minutes, combined and 
steamed three hours, always adding a 
teaspoon salt to each quart. 
Rhubarb the Base of Conserves 
Rhubarb k> cut in small pieces, packed 
in hot clean jars and boiling water poured 
over, then seal. Keeps perfectly. Three 
parts rhubarb and one part pineapple, 
sweetened and boiled till thick, results in 
a delicious conserve. Mulberries three 
parts, sour cherries one part are fine for 
pies—either canned with or without syrup. 
Cherries are canned, spiced, dried and 
preserved in our kitchen. We also dry our 
own prunes. Tomatoes for winter slicing 
are prepared thus: select ripe, firm toma¬ 
toes that will slip in mouth of jar easily, 
scald, slip skin off and pack in jar—pour 
boiling water in, seal partially; after 10 
minutes empty and refill with boiling 
water, repeat third time and seal. * 
Grapes and plums are canned this way, 
and the last filling is boiling syrup, two 
cups of sugar to two of water. Consult 
your own taste as to sweetness. No 
further cooking is necessary. Peaches are 
pared by immersing a few minutes in 
boiling lye (one tablespoon lye to each 
quart water) drain, plunge in cold water, 
slip skins, discard pits, pack in jars, add 
hot syrup and steam or boil 20 to 30 
minutes. 
Plan Ahead for Winter Supplies 
Fruit syrups, jellies, butters and con¬ 
serves of most fruits add variety to the 
farm menu. Pimentos ground through 
food chopper, scalded in weak vinegar, 
drained, packed in small jars and covered 
with sweetened hot vinegar, then proc¬ 
essed one hour, make delicious sand¬ 
wich fillings and salad flavoring. 
We can cucumbers in six different ways, 
aside from common, everyday pickle. 
Stone?'jars of spiced apples, pears, peaches, 
grapes, cherries and mangoes may be put 
up to save canning in small quantities. 
Various fruits are nice dried; apples, 
cherries and apricots are tasty. 
With pork, beef and chicken canned, 
tlie winter months hold no terror for the 
farm housewife and her family. Thus it 
is possible to enjoy succulent, tender 
young fruit and vegetables throughout 
the winter instead of a few days or weeks 
when they are in season.—M rs. H. I 
Krabill. 
More Recipes for Yeast 
IT'OUR large, mealy potatoes peeled, 
2 quarts of cold water, 1 teacupful of 
loose, dry hops or half a cake of the 
pressed hops put up by the Shakers and 
sold by druggists, 2 tablespoonfuls of 
white sugar, 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, hh 
a cup lively 5*east or a yeast cake dis¬ 
solved in a little warm water. 
Put water, potatoes and the hops tied 
up in a bit of coarse muslin over the fire 
in a clean pot or kettle Boil until the 
potatoes break apart when a fork is stuck 
into them. Take out the potatoes, leav¬ 
ing water and hops on the range where 
they will boil slowly. Mash the potatoes 
smooth in a wooden or crockery bowl 
with a wooden spoon and work in the 
sugar. When these are well mixed wet 
the paste with three tablespoonfuls of 
boiling hop tea then stir in a tablespoonful 
of flour. Do this four times beating and 
stirring to get rid of lumps. When the 
flour is all in, add a little at a time, the 
rest of the hop tea, squeezing the bag hard 
to get every drop. Throw the boiled 
hops away and wash the bag well before 
putting aside for the next yeast-making. 
Strain the thick grayish liquid through a 
colander into a bowl and let it get almost 
but not quite cold before you stir in the 
half cupful of made yeast to raise it. 
Set aside out of dust and wind, put a 
sieve or mosquito netting over it and leave 
it to work. Set bowl in a large pan or 
dish to catch what runs over the sides. 
When the yeast ceases to sing or hiss and 
the bubbles no longer rise and break on 
the surface the fermentation is complete. 
Four or 5 hours in July, 8 hours in Janu¬ 
ary, usually bring this to pass. Pour the 
yeast into glass fruit jars with close 
covers, or stone jars fitted with corks 
trying the corks down with twine. Keep 
in a cool, dark place ahd do not open 
except to draw of the quantity needed for 
a baking. Shake up the bottle before 
pouring out what you want into a cup. 
This is the kind of yeast I make and 
my neighbors say they never had its 
equal. About x /l cup will make four 
loaves. This is a reliable recipe for home¬ 
made yeast, requested by Mrs. C. I. P. 
of Pennsylvania in the American Agri¬ 
culturist, May 17, 1924.—M. A., 
Pa. 
Mrs. L. E. C. of N. Y. sends a recipe 
that she says has given splendid results 
for many years: 
A Recipe Using Spices 
Into S pints of boiling water stir 1 tablespoonful each 
of salt and ginger and three of sugar (brown preferred) 
then add enough grated raw potato to make rather a thick 
batter, Set on stove and stir constantly to prevent 
scorching, until it boils up well, then set off to cool. 
Put a small handful of hops in can or dish (kept for 
that purpose), cover with boiling water and let stand 
on back of stove while preparing the above. Drain off 
tea from hops and when cool enough, soak a cake of 
“yeast foam” until it can be mashed fine and add to 
first mixture. 
After a day or so, or when fermentation begins to sub¬ 
side, put in glass fruit cans and keep in cellar. Do not 
seal tight until fermentation ceases or there will be an 
explosion. A teaeupful will raise a good-sized batch of 
bread. 
Swift Currents 
(Continued from page 27) 
as directly and frankly as ever, and her 
voice softened. She grew, but did not 
become really tall; she was rather a little 
person; and men who used to hold her 
before them on their horses when she was 
a child, dismounted when they met her 
and awkwardly pulled off their hats and 
delayed her in talk. 
“No girl at the camp can touch you,” 
they said to her, proud of her as one of 
themselves. Felicia said nothing aloud, 
but to herself admitted, “No girl at the 
camp wants to.” 
And Tony, when he came for her to ride 
with him, began formally to seek her 
handclasp and to require it again at eve¬ 
ning before they parted. She found him 
flushing, as she found wahn blood flowing 
within her when, on their climbs, he lifted 
her in his arms from one foothold to an¬ 
other which she could not quite reach. 
He took in his pocket to read to her on the 
mountain-tops the “Rubaiyat,” and 
“The Seven Seas,” and “The Five Na¬ 
tions.” 
This was all delight until, when he took 
her home and they passed Acheron Run, 
she saw him look down defiantly at that 
torrent which had always fascinated him. 
“I bet a man can go down the run,” he 
said. And now, more than ever before, 
the thought that he might try it excited 
her. 
“Don’t you ever try it!” 
“Why not? What do you care?” 
Which reply made her so angry that she 
cried when she was alone at last, 
UE was at Harvard now in the autumn, 
winter and spring; one summer he 
went abroad, but the next he returned to 
the camp; he was in higher spirits, more 
daring than ever, and now, when he 
looked upon the run, he talked about it no 
more, but she saw his eye gleam in his 
estimation of it. So all that first month 
she was afraid to delay longer, she in¬ 
vaded the domains of the Crandalls. 
She followed a new path down the river 
to a well-hidden ravine, where she discov¬ 
ered a shed within which Tony was work¬ 
ing at a boat which he had evidently built 
there—a cedar kaiak, sealed over bow and 
stern, with a cockpit amidship to hold one 
man. The craft was complete, and its 
purpose so plain that Felicia went white, 
and trembled as she advanced. 
He heard her and turning, he attempted 
to hail her as usual, but he started guiltily 
when he saw her paleness. 
“Tony, when were you going to do it?” 
she asked. 
“I was going to do it to-morrow morn¬ 
ing, but I’m ready now!” he replied, re¬ 
covering himself to defy her. 
“Tony, you’ll kill yourself. I’ll not let 
you,” her voice said quite calmly; while 
passions which she did not dream she 
possessed rose within her. 
“I can make the run all right! If'I 
don’t, what do you care?” 
This maddened her, so that she bent 
and snatched up an adz and raised it, 
when he sprang upon her. 
“You smash my boat and I’ll go down 
the run on a log, do you hear?” and his 
breath was hot upon her face as she strug¬ 
gled. She dropped the adz and fought 
him only a moment more, for she believed 
him. He released her then and she 
backed away from him. She could have 
killed herself when she realized the mis¬ 
take she had made. For if he had possibly 
hesitated before, now he would go down 
the run on a log, as he said; he would kill 
himself! 
Words of hers, arguments, appeals, 
would mean nothing. __ She did not try 
them. Subconsciously her senses worked 
for her. She saw overhead a block and 
tackle rigged to the roof of the shed to 
lift the boat while he worked, and without 
being aware of what her mind was doing, 
she planned to use it. 
A bit of loose liue lay on the boat, and 
only waiting until Tony ceased to con¬ 
front her, and until he had turned to con¬ 
tinue his work on the boat, she snatched 
up the rope, she sprang forward and 
looped it about his wrists; she caught 
the loop in the hook of the pulley and, 
springing to the tackle before he could 
free himself, she put all her weight on the 
rope and, with her strength trebled by the 
blocks, she raised his arms above his head. 
{To be continued) 
FOUR PRACTICAL STYLES FOR THE FARM WOMAN 
No. 2155 will look cool and comfortable 
when small sister wears it, bat it also is 
pretty enough to make mother feel she looks 
"just right.” It is suitable for gingham, 
voile or any cotton material. No. 2155 
cuts in sizes 2, If, 6, taking for the 4-year size 
only 1 ]/% yards of 36-inch material. Price. 
12c. 
No. 2041 is that all-important garment, 
the romper! Nothing more useful for the 
small child has ever been invented. No. 2041 
icill appeal especially to the mother who has 
little time for sewing It cuts in sizes 6 
months, 1, 2 and 3 years, taking yards 
of 86-inch material for size 3. Price, 12c, 
No. 2051 is the famous no-seam 
apron. Notice in the diagram how the 
entire garment cuts in one piece. You 
gather the fullness at each side, join the 
slashed ends, apply the braid, sew on the 
pocket and there’s your apron f It cuts 
in 3 sizes — small, medium and large — 
and takes 2 yards of material. Price, 
12c. 
No. 1802 is extremely becoming to 
the woman of plump figure. The long 
collar and side panels give a slim effect. 
No. 1802 cuts in sizes 36, 38, 40, 42 , 
44, 46 and 48 inches bust measure. For 
size 36, use 5 yards of 40-incfi material 
with % yard contrasting. Price, 12c. 
TO ORDER: Write name, 
address, pattern numbers and 
sizes very clearly, enclose 
proper remittance in either 
stamps or coin (stamps are 
safer) and send to The Pattern 
Department, American Agri¬ 
culturist, 461 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. Add 10c for 
our interesting catalogue of 
summer styles. 
