The new knowledge of nutrition—new 
scientific facts about the human diet and 
its effects on the health of people—has 
injected an entirely new angle into gar- 
dening. Having a family garden is no 
longer a mere matter of planting so many 
rows of onions, so many rows of peas, of 
cabbage, and of kohlrabi. Providing the 
family with a proper diet has become a 
science. To be well fed and benefit from 
a protective diet, we need to grow a wide 
variety of vegetables so we shall have a 
proper balance of the protective vitamins 
and minerals derived from vegetables 
the year round. 
For several years now, we have all 
heard about the importance of Vitamins 
and how vital they are to health. Most of 
us think of vitamins as something rather 
mysterious and available in little pills. 
Actually they are found in great quanti- 
ties in our daily food and with the proper 
planning of meals it is an easy matter to 
secure the minimum requirements daily 
without the additional cost of pills. 
GROW YOUR OWN 
The importance of growing your own 
vegetables is two fold. First, garden fresh 
vegetables are far more palatable because 
of their crisp tenderness and sweet flavor. 
Varieties grown commercially must have 
a tough coarse texture to withstand 
packing, shipping and handling in stores. 

This durability always sacri- 
fices some delicacy and tasti- 
ness found in home grown 
varieties. Second, vegetables 
will deteriorate in vitamin 
content if allowed to stand 
for some time before serving. 
Garden fresh vegetables, 
eaten the same day they are 
harvested, contain their full 
share of vitamins‘and min- 
erals. 
MINERALS 
IMPORTANT 
Much has been said about 
vitamins and their impor- 
tance to our health. Little 
stress has been laid to the im- 
portance of minerals, whereas minerals 
are just as necessary in a well balanced 
diet as the vitamins. Strange as it may 
seem, vegetables known for their high 
mineral content (such as iron in spin- 
ach) can be completely lacking in min- 
erals if the soil in which they grow does 
not contain minerals. This shows the 
importance of fertilizing with a complete 
plant food so you can be certain your 
vegetables will be rich in minerals. 
Vitamin A: Especially important for 
proper functioning and development of 
the eyes. It is your bodyguard against in- 
fection and necessary for body growth. 
Scientists say it’s important for a long, 
healthy life. Extra vitamin A is stored 
within your liver, it is easy to get in yel- 
low and leafy vegetables, butter and eggs. 
Vitamin Bl (Thiamine): Essential 
for the functioning of the heart and 
nerves. Whets the appetite and gives you 
vim and vigor. Important in body 
growth. Get your Bl every day in whole 
grain cereals, fortified bread and several 
vegetables. 
Vitamin C: Helps keep your teeth and 
gums healthy, and your body agile and 
young. Speeds healing of wounds. Found 
in nearly all vegetables but is rather 
temperamental and apt to be destroyed 
by cooking. Get ’em raw in fresh vege- 
table salads. Tomatoes are one of the best 
sources known for this vitamin. 
[5] 

Vitamin G: (Riboflavin) : Like “A” 
it is needed for good eye sight also gives 
you vigor. Important to body growth. 
Not readily stored, should be supplied 
daily from green, leafy vegetables, meat 
and milk. 
COOKING VEGETABLES 
TO SAVE VITAMINS 
Baking is the best method to preserve 
Vitamins and minerals. Dry baking in 
their skins generally used for potatoes, 
sweet potatoes, squash, turnips, carrots, 
onions, and parsnips is a simple method 
whereby they are baked in a hot oven 
until tender when pierced with a sharp 
fork. Baking, however, also includes 
the roasting of whole vegetables with 
meat, gravy, or fat, especially when pota- 
toes or sweet potatoes are scraped, pre- 
serving minerals under the skin. 
Au Gratin and Scalloping are other 
forms of baking, especially when fresh 
vegetables are used with cheese or 
crumbs. Left-over cooked vegetables may 
be prepared by these methods also, but 
the Vitamin and mineral value will be 
determined by the first cooking. 
Waterless Cooking of fresh vege- 
tables is any process in which no water 
is added. The water in the vegetable 
itself does the cooking. A thick-walled 
kettle with a tight-fitting lid is the neces- 
sary equipment. Very low heat is used, 
and the vegetable is tender in a very short 
time because neither heat nor steam es- 
capes. No minerals are lost and the loss 
of Vitamins is almost as low as in baking. 
Steaming is cooking in live steam and 
valuable for the vegetables that can stand 
a high temperature for a long period; 
carrots, beets, parsnips, sweet potatoes, 
wax beans, or those that are cooked in 
the meat pot so that the extracted miner- 
als and Vitamins are used in the gravy. 
Boiling does the most damage to vege- 
tables, yet it is used most frequently by 
the largest number of home-makers. Al- 
though there are methods that reduce the 
losses to a minimum, the modern woman 
should remember that boiling is to be 
