Candy-Making Revolutionized: Confectionery from Vegetables

The discovery of vegetable candy has been of great pedagogic value. Teachers of household arts and all art are beginning to find that the new bases are of great service to them in their class work. Before this discovery, there was no medium which was of use for both cooking and the modeling classes. Now cooking classes and modeling classes can be correlated in such a way that much is promised both.

The processes in the making of potato fondant and potato paste illustrate fundamental principles in domestic science. With the exercise of a little care on the part of the teacher, their making can be as simple and educationally valuable as the traditional first lesson in peppermint drops. In the fashioning of these new candies, however, there is more incentive to the child than there was in the cooking of the old-fashioned confection, no matter how delectable it might be. But the pedagogic value of vegetable candy does not fall wholly within the field of household arts. As has been explained in the chapter concerning decorative candy, potato fondant and paste are the basis of very attractive objects. Their fashioning, obviously, can be made to teach principles of line, design and color. Is it not safe to say that no other modeling medium—edible or inedible—possesses this threefold recommendation? Fondant or paste can be colored by painting directly upon the finished surfaces, or the coloring matter can be worked into the mass. In either case, there is a pleasing relief from the gray or green of clay and its preparations. Now the child can model in natural colors what he sees on his nature study rambles. Now he can make roses in their natural colorings and shadings, and buds that are not wholly a dull, dead green! Moreover, potato fondant can be modeled so as to have clearer outlines than clay. There are two disadvantages, however, which should be stated: first, potato fondant must be handled with moderate quickness in order to give the best results, and, second, it is so good that there is danger that the pupil will prematurely eat his lesson!

Because the finished product is good to eat as well as to look upon, potato fondant as a modeling medium adds to the teacher's resources another incentive for the child. In work with defective children, it has been found, again and again, that the more senses to which appeal can be made, the better. Do not the same principles apply to the normal child, although with somewhat lessened force? In art work with vegetable candy, sight and touch are not the only senses in operation; taste and smell are in full play.

Often, teachers of both art and household arts are perplexed when it comes time for the annual school exhibition. "What can we do," they ask, "that will be properly illustrative of our work and, at the same time, of appeal to the popular imagination?" It is hoped that vegetable candy offers an answer to this question. Its novelty and hygienic value are such that parents of the children are interested in it. Moreover, the unusual interest of the children themselves has been known to react upon the parents.

Suggestions for the details of working out the school use of vegetable candy will be found in the pages which precede. The teachers should read with particular care the chapter which refers to decorative candy, and particularly the division relating to modeling. They will find many hints as to how it can be successfully applied to their own school work.

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