The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 13, 1917, Page 12

Edited by Mrs. Alberta B. Toner Women Aren’t Reading It e S = e S s S Mrs. Wise Writes Regarding BY MRS. MARY B. WISE AND sakes! the women aren't reading all this stuff about the different dainties that can be made from the good chunks pared out of poor ap- ples, and the most expensive kinds of puddings to make out of the bread crumbs they can save. You know every time I read these airy nothings, reeling from dizzy brains, I wonder and wonder how MANKIND can delude itself sinto thinking that WOMAN- KIND is interested in such things. You know there is an old, old say- ing “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” It's pretty good advice. I amend it to read like this: “When writing for women, write as the women think.” You never get your game by missing the aim. I should like to say a word to the dear, excited men who are so feverish- ly wasting good white paper and good black ink by the carload (in these sav- ing times) in an effort to get the wo- men excited about things that the women have taken as matter of fact since Adam first gave Eve the job of taking care of his bungalow. You can’'t get women excited about new cooking recipes—unless indeed those darling creatures of wealth who have suddenly come to the consciousness that there is such a thing as home and kitchen, and in the ardor of their new discovery are expressing their whims and suggesting grand new experiments in the confident belief that they are being patriotic, CAN'T EXCITE WOMEN OVER MERE RECIPES You can't get a well broken house- keeper to rave over the reams of ad- vice streaming from editorial desks, for she has got all over that excite- ment years ago. Of course when she was a bride, she used to watch the oven with hot, red cheeks, and cry over the doughy biscuits and the soiled table cloth. But that went with the honeymoon. She doesn’t cry any more —and let me tell you—she is making lots better bread, watching out for the welfare of the family stomachs, and living life too withal. You might as well try to scare the family horse with a new harness, as try to get house- keepers excited over the trivial details that the government and so many of our safe and Treactionary old farm papers have just discovered and are using to stir them up. I'll venture the remark that all the economies that could be achieved by all the housekeepers in the . United States because of the campaign for “saving”, would not amount to as much as the cost of the propoganda itself. I'll venture the estimate that if the government would save the expense of these arguments for “wheatless breads” and “meatless meals”, and sav- ing crusts, and eating scraps—if the government and farm papers who are aiding and abbeting this passing fad would save that expense and devote the same expense to gaining efficiency in their own particular realms, the population of the United States and our European allies would receive more benefits than they will ever receive from the advice. SAVING IS AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE ON THE FARM I know a woman who has lived on a farm all her life. She never wastes anything, and I know this for we have lived neighbor to her for almost 40 years, visited each other and know each other’s household methods. When there are potatoes left over they are carefully put in the pantry (there isn't any refrigerator—which by the way is one of the utilities necessary for put- ting into effect most of the free gov- ernment advice that the taxpayers are paying for) she puts them in the pan- try and makes them over at night. And the good things that woman can make out of scraps of meat and potatoes and the vegetables from her garden (it isn’t a “war garden’ either—but a 40-year home garden always on duty as are all farmers’ gardens) would provide the government -recipe makers with ma- terial for a whole month. She fries eggs in cream, and she makes bread enough so that everyone has all he wants at each meal. She puts the butter in the center of the table and all help themselves. She never thinks of measuring “calories” to see whether Johnnie has eaten one calory more butter than a scientific analysis of his diet for a year would show necessary. She never thinks of stinting anyone of her family, the hired man or the neighbors who drop in often enough so that she must al- ways be prepared to serve meals to some extra mouths. “CLEAN PLATE” GOSPEL GROWING INTO CLAMOR Never a time that I have been at that house, but there have been things left over and set away. The “gospel of the clean plate” has no place in her home, and she perhaps has never even heard that ingenious phrase. But she uses everything left over, even to fried eggs, and odds and ends of stewed fruit. And the point is she does it without harkening to the growing thunder of MANKIND now issuing from every editorial room, and threat- ening to make so much noise that the proverbial woman with her never- ceasing tongue can't be heard at all. She is not the only woman who does FARMERS ENTERTAIN THEIR GOVERNOR such things. If she were there would be a good many more farmers bank- rupt than there are. I wish I could make it plain to your half-awake edi- tors that the housewives have .been awake all these years and have been doing all the things that the surprised editors now believe are so startlingly new. That's why you can’'t get women excited about “meatless meals” and ‘“clean plates”,and crumbs and scraps, and garbage cans. By the way, there are no garbage cans on the farms, though these vol- lies of garbage can counsel seem di- rected at the women of the farm, since they occur in the farm papers. We take three farm papers and have found the same articles in each one of them, in one instance with the ear marks of government authorship, and in the others with no such earmarks, the edi- tor apparently desiring to make his readers believe that he had himself invented and concocted the whole of it. No, there are no garbage cans, but the pigs and the chickens get what the family can not consume, and for every ounce they get that way, there is some wheat or corn or barley saved. And it's the same everywhere. All farms are the same. All farmers’ wives save and skimp and economise. They, “Food Conservation” are trained to it- and they have to, But they do it without reading these sowal thrilling recipes. WHY NOT VISIT SOME FARM HOMES It would be a great help to some of these government farm writers to come out and visit some farms. They would see how far they miss the mark. They would learn why women just read the headlines, and then sit down and give the editors a good round tongue lash- ing. They would learn why so many women never read the farm women’'s pages at all. One of my neighbors the other day made the shrewd remark, after I had shown her one of the inspired articles, “I don't know of anyone who has a better right to eat what is raised on the farm than the people who raise it.” And another said at the ladies’ aid meeting, where the talk trned to cone servation of food and such things: “About all we do get out of the farm, is what we eat up, and now they want us to cut out part of that by telling us to cheat the pigs and chickens out of the scraps and eat them ourselves— so there will be more of the first class food to pass over to others.” What do you think about it? Whenever Governor Lynn J. Frazier 6 of North Dakota, the farm- ers’ governor, makes a trip around the state, he finds plenty of real farmers and their wives who are anxious to en- tertain him. He doesn’t have to wait upon the hospitality of the com- mercial clubs and bank- ers’ organizations. The “picture above shows the governor outside the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Lenth, near Buffalo Springs. The Lenths were hosts to a dinner cently. How to Prepare Grapes Various fruit juices may be prepared in the home and bottled for future use. Practically any fruit may be used in “ the first recipe following. The fruit juice may be'pressed out of fruit by means of a cider press, special fruit press, or other improvised presses, then heated in an acid-proof kettle up to 110 degrees F. The fruit juice may then be poured into ordinary hot jars, hot bottles, or tin cans and handled by the same directions as those for can- ning of fruit itself. If poured into mis- cellaneous hottles, it is suggested that the fruit juice be sterilized as follows: Make a cotton stopper and press into the neck of the bottle and leave during the sterilization period. Set bottles in boiling hot water up to the neck of the bottle, sterilize the fruit juice for 40 minutes at a temperature of 165 de- grees F. 'Remove the product, press cork in top over cotton stopper imme- diately. If the cork fits well, no paraf- fin need be used. If a poor cork, it may be necessary to dip the cork in a melt- ed solution of wax or paraffin. Fruit'_ juices and apple cider when handled - in this way will not “flatten in taste” and will keep_fresh for future use. For home use there are a large num- ber of varieties of grapes which will make a pleasant and healthful drink. No matter what the kind of grape, however, only clean, sound fruit should be used, and it should be well ripened, but not overripe. The grapes should first be crushed and pressed in an or- dinary cider mill, or by hzad if no mill is available. % Light-colored juice.—After the juice PAGE TWELVE is pressed out the subsequent proce- dure depends upon whether a white or a red juice is desired. For a light- colored juice the crushed grapes are put into a cloth .sack and twisted until the greater part of the juice is extract- ed, one person holding each end of the sack. The juice is then put in some convenient form of double boiler, in which it does not come into direct con- tact with the fire, but is surrounded by hot water, and gradually heated to a temperature close to 200 degrees F.; however, it should not be allowed to go over this point. If no thermometer i3 .available, it is best to heat the juice until it steams and then 'to- take it from the fire before it is allowed to boil. It should then be poured into a glass or enameled vessel -and. allowed to settle for 24 hours, after which it can be drained from the sediment and run through some form of cloth filter. The strained juice is then put into clean bottles and sterilized once more in a water bath. An ordinary wash boiler with a thin board on the bottom for the filled bottles to rest on is a convenient home device for this purpose. After sterilization the bottles should be cork- ed immediately with new corks, the corks having been previously soaked for about 30 minutes in hot water. Red juice.—For red juice the crushed grapes are first heated to the same temperature as before and then strain- ed through a clean cloth or drip bag without pressure. Thereafter the pro- cess is the same as for light-colored Juice. . Grape juice should be stored away in bottles or jars that are not too large, for after these have been opened the juice is likely to spoil, If properly made, however, the juice should keep indefinitely as long as it is kept in sealed bottles. In this respect it is, of course, like other canned goods, which should always be used as soon as pos= sible after they have been opened. 7 TWO WHEATLESS BREADS Here are two wheatless breads, one a South Carolina woman's recipe, and one from the Journal of Home Economica. Owendaw. Boil one pint of hominy, grits with 3 pints of salted water une< til mixture thickens, then set on back « of stove and cook slowly until done, about half an hour. While hot mix 1 large spoon butter and 3 eggs beaten very light, next add 1 pint of milk and lastly 1 pint of cornmeal. The batter should be the consistency of rich boile ed custard. If too thick add milk Bake with good heat at bottom un*il the batter is set. Serve with spoon from dish. This is a soft breakfast bread an a South Carolina specialty., Barley Pone. One _.cup boiled hominy grits, 2 cups of milk, 2 tablee spoonfuls bacon fat, 14 teaspoonful salt, 1 cup barley meal, 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder, 2 eggs. Add the milk and fat to the cooked hominy grits, Cool, add salt, barley meal, and baking powder sifted together, then the well beaten eggs; pour into a greased dish and bake in a moderate oven fortye five minutes. Cut ~in trianglulap pieces and serve from dish in which baked. : to Governor Frazier res" t B i t 1 - [ 1 1 3 1