Every Step in Canning: The Cold-Pack Method

CHAPTER XVI

CURING, SMOKING AND PRESERVING MEAT

Many farmers seem to have more trouble with the curing of meats than with the slaughtering. This part of the work is indeed very important as it determines whether one will have good tasting cured meat or meat that is too salty or possibly that is far removed from the original taste of the raw product.

It is worth every farmer or farmerette's attention to spend some time on this problem as it pays so well in the resulting, good tasting meat. Why not have a superior grade of home-cured meat as easily as a poor grade? Work carefully and accurately done will produce good results while work slovenly or carelessly done can produce nothing but poor results. To cure meat so that it is not only delicious but has good keeping qualities is an art and accomplishment worth striving for. A pride in this work is just as fine and worth while as the housewife's pride in her culinary skill or the pride of any other professional in his or her line of work. To-day we are thinking of food and its problems as never before and it behooves us all to put more time, thought, care and skill on all things that pertain to foods. And as meat is such an essential item in our diet, meat problems should receive their due attention.

All meat that is to be cured should always be thoroughly cooled and cut into the desired convenient sizes before it is put into the brine or packed in dry salt.

The pieces most commonly used for curing are the ham, shoulder and bacon pieces from pork. From beef we use the cheaper, tougher cuts such as the plate, shoulder and chuck ribs. Mutton is seldom cured and preserved.

The ham should be cut off at the hock joint, the spare ribs taken out of the bacon, and the ragged edges trimmed off smooth. If ragged edges or scraggy ends are left these portions will become too dry in the curing and will practically be wasted.

After all the animal heat is removed from the meat and it is properly cut it is then ready for the curing. If salt is put on the meat before the animal heat is all removed, it will have a tendency to shrink the muscles and form a coating on the outside which will not allow the generating gases to escape. Meat should never be in a frozen condition when the salt is added as the frost will prevent the proper penetration of the brine and uneven curing will be the result.

METHODS OF CURING MEAT

The two most common methods of curing meat are first the brine or sugar cure process and second the dry-curing process. For general farm use the brine cured process is the better. It requires less time, less effort and not such an exacting place for the work. On most farms it is impossible to secure a desirable place in which to do the dry-curing as the meat is exposed to rats, cats, flies and other insects. The dry-curing requires considerable time to rub and salt the meat at different times while the only attention that is necessary for brine-curing is to properly prepare and pack the meat in the vessel and prepare the brine for it.

UTENSILS FOR CURING

If possible use a round container for the curing. It is easier to put the meat in tightly, and the space can be used to better advantage. A hardwood barrel of some kind is excellent. Sirup, molasses or lard barrels which have been thoroughly cleaned are very satisfactory. If you use a vinegar or an oil barrel it should be well burned on the inside before using. Stone crocks or jars are sometimes used but they are expensive and cumbersome to handle besides the constant danger of loss of brine from breakage.

PRESERVATIVES

For curing the meat the farmer usually uses salt, salt peter, white or brown sugar or molasses. These are the necessary preservatives. The others such as boracic acid, borax and soda are often used for sweetening the brine and to keep it from spoiling but are not absolutely essential. The salt extracts moisture and acts as a preservative. The sugar or molasses imparts a nice flavor and has a tendency to keep the muscle tissue soft in contrast to the salt, which has a tendency to make it hard and dry. So the salt and sugar have two distinct functions to perform, the one to harden and preserve, the other to soften and sweeten. If you have a favorite recipe that has proved satisfactory and you want to use sorghum or molasses instead of sugar add one pound more of the molasses. If you have been accustomed to using 2 pounds of sugar then use 3 pounds of the other sweetening.

Salt peter is not absolutely necessary as far as the preserving is concerned but it helps to hold the red color of the lean meat. If salt peter is not used the lean meat will be gray in color. It may possibly be a little tenderer if the salt peter is not used as the salt peter tends to harden the meat. Chili salt peter can be substituted in place of salt peter, if only four-fifths as much is used.

THE SUGAR BRINE CURE

All formulas for the sugar brine cure are practically the same varying only a little in the proportions of sugar, salt and salt peter. If you have a formula that you have tried for years and have found it to be satisfactory there is no reason you should attempt a new one. But for those who want to try a different formula or recipe I will give you this reliable one that is widely used and indorsed by several agricultural colleges.

The container should be scalded thoroughly. Sprinkle a layer of salt over the bottom and over each layer of meat as it is packed in, skin down. When full, cover meat with boards and weight down with a stone so that all will be below the brine, which is made as follows:

Weigh out for each 100 pounds of meat, 8 pounds of salt, 2 pounds of sugar (preferably brown) or 3 pounds of molasses, and 2 ounces of salt peter. Dissolve all in 4 gallons of water. This should be boiled, and when thoroughly cooled, cover the meat. Seven days after brine is put on, meat should be repacked in another barrel in reverse order. The pieces that were on top should be placed on the bottom. The brine is poured over as before. This is repeated on the fourteenth and twenty-first days, thus giving an even cure to all pieces. Bacon should remain in the brine from four to six weeks, and hams six to eight weeks, depending on the size of the pieces. When cured, each piece should be scrubbed with tepid water and hung to drain several days before smoking; no two pieces should come in contact. For all curing always use dairy salt and not table salt, as the latter contains starch to keep it dry and this starch may cause the meat to spoil. If you carefully follow these directions you will have delicious sugar-cured hams and bacon.

CORNED BEEF

It is desirable to have an ample supply of corned beef on hand. For this any part of the beef may be used but the parts usually selected are the plate, rump, cross-ribs and brisket, which are the tougher cuts of the meat. The brisket and plate are especially good because of the character of the fat, which is somewhat like a tissue. Cut all around the meat to about the same thickness, so that it will make an even layer in the barrel. It is best to remove the bone, although this is not necessary. Be sure to start the pickling or curing while the meat is perfectly fresh, but well chilled. Do not wait like some farmers do until they think the meat is beginning to spoil and then salt it down just to save it. Allow ten pounds of dairy salt to each 100 pounds of meat. Sprinkle a layer of the salt in the bottom of the crock, barrel, or whatever container is used. Have the salt about one-fourth of an inch in depth. After the layer is in the bottom of the container put the cuts of meat in as closely as possible, making the layer five or six inches in thickness, then put on another layer of salt, following that with another layer of meat. Repeat until the meat and salt have all been packed in the barrel, care being taken to reserve salt enough for a good layer on the top. Cover the meat with a board and weight down with a stone and not an iron weight. Do not allow any meat to project from the salt or mold will start and the brine will spoil in a short time. Let the meat stand over-night.

Prepare a brine by boiling 7 pounds salt, 3 pounds brown sugar or 6 pounds molasses, 2 ounces baking soda, 2 ounces salt peter and 4 gallons water for every 100 pounds of meat. This quantity of brine should be sufficient to cover that amount.

Remove any scum that rises to the surface and filter the hot brine through muslin. Set the brine aside, best over-night, to become perfectly cold before using. In the morning tip the container in which the meat is packed so that all liquor which has separated from the meat over night may drain off. Cover the meat with the cold brine. Put the container in a cool place. The curing will be more satisfactory if the meat is left at a temperature of about 38 degrees F. Never let the temperature go above 50 degrees F. and there is some risk with even a temperature of 40 degrees F. if it is continuous. The sugar or molasses in the brine has a tendency to ferment in a warm place.

After about five days the meat should be overhauled and repacked, putting the pieces which were previously on the bottom on top. Pour back the same brine, and five days later repeat the overhauling. This may seem like some trouble and possibly look like a useless waste of time but it is well worth while as it insures a more rapid and uniform curing of the meat.

When unpacking the meat watch the brine to see that it is not ropy or moldy. If you find either condition existing remove the meat and rinse each piece with cold water and after scalding the container pack the meat as at first with a little salt. Scald and skim the brine and after it is cold pour it on the meat as before. You can use corned beef if necessary after a week in the cure, but it is not thoroughly cured until it has been from 20 to 30 days in the brine. If kept for sixty days it will be salty enough to need freshening before cooking.

If the meat has been corned during the winter, and is to be kept until summer, watch the brine closely during the spring as it is more likely to spoil then than at any other time.

PLAIN SALT PORK

Rub each piece of meat with dairy salt, and pack closely in a container. Let stand over-night. The next day weigh out ten pounds of salt and two ounces of salt peter for each 100 pounds of meat, and dissolve in four gallons of boiling water. Pour this brine, when cold, over the meat, cover, and weight the meat down to keep it under the brine. The pork should be kept in the brine until used.

SMOKING CURED MEATS

Of course many farmers never attempt to smoke their cured meats but use them directly from the brine but if possible it is more satisfactory to smoke them before using for several reasons. First, the process of smoking helps to preserve the meat. The creosote formed by the combustion of the wood closes the pores of the meat to a great extent thus excluding the air and helping it to keep and at the same time makes the meat objectionable to insects. In the second place, pickled or cured meats taste better and are more palatable if smoked. Of course the smoking must be properly done and the right kind of fuel must be used.

The Smokehouse and the Smoke. It is not necessary to have a regular smokehouse—although it is a delightful addition to any farm. Here again a community meat ring is of great advantage. One smokehouse will answer for many families. This is the ideal arrangement and it can easily be managed if you are progressive and anxious enough to supply your family with delicious meat the year around saving time and money.

If, however, you have to do your own smoking and smoke only a small quantity at a time a barrel or box will answer. Overheating of the meat must be guarded against.

Green hickory or any of the hardwoods or maple should be used for the smoking. Pine or any other resinous woods should not be used as they give a disagreeable flavor to the meat. If it is impossible to get hardwood use corncobs rather than soft wood. The corncobs will leave a dirty deposit on the meat, which is carbon. It is not objectionable only from the standpoint of "looks." The meat which you are going to smoke should be removed from the brine the day before the smoking. A half hour soaking in cold water prevents a crust of salt from forming on the outside. Do not hang the meat so that any two pieces touch as this would prevent uniform smoking.

Always start with a slow fire so as to warm the meat up gradually. Thirty-six to forty-eight hours of heat as near 120 degrees F. as possible will be sufficient under most circumstances.

How to Store Smoked Meats. A dry, cool cellar or attic where there is good circulation is a good place for storage. If the meat is to be used soon the meat can hang without coverings but for long keeping you will have to wrap it when cold in waxed paper and then in burlap, muslin or canvas bags and then hang it, after it is tied very tightly to prevent insects from getting in, in a room with a cool uniform temperature.

Some farmers get satisfactory results by wrapping the meats in strong bags and then burying them in oat bins.

SAUSAGE

Frequently when animals are butchered on the farm there are often wholesome portions of the carcass that are not used. All trimmings, cheeks, liver, tongue, breast and other pieces can be made into bologna, headcheese or some other form of sausage. Sausage making is an art worth acquiring. There is always a good demand for fresh and smoked country sausage, so if you wish to sell some you will have no trouble in finding a market for your product if it is a good one.

To make sausage you should have a meat grinder, which is an absolute essential on every farm. If you do not have one already then buy a No. 22 or No. 32.

In addition to the grinder you will need a stuffer attachment which costs very little. A knife, cord, string, a clean tube and casings or muslin bags will complete your equipment. The muslin bags can be of any size but the easiest to handle are 12 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. If the sausage is stuffed into these bags they must be paraffined for home use. If you do not want to bother with casings or bags put the sausage in stone crocks or tin pans with a layer of lard or paraffin on top.

The best sausage is made by using 3 parts of lean meat to one of fat. When using the grinder, distribute the lean and fat meat as uniformly as possible.

You are not necessarily limited to pork sausage, for there are many other delicious varieties you can make. They vary in the different kinds of meat used and in the different seasonings and spices.

Breakfast sausage has bread added to it; frankfurters are smoked pork sausage in casings; liver sausage has pork and beef or veal and bread in it; and blood sausage, as its name suggests, has blood (preferably from a hog) added to it. Then there is tomato sausage which is made of pulp from fresh tomatoes, pork sausage and crackers. Summer sausage is made in the winter and kept for use during the summer. After being dried and cured it will keep for months. Brain sausage is delicious. To make it calves' brains are mixed with lean pork. Cambridge sausage has rice added to it.

Headcheese is usually made from the hog's head but odds and ends also can be used not only from pork but from beef and veal.

Scrapple usually means the head and feet of hogs but it can be made from any hog meat. It is a good food as it uses cornmeal. It makes a change from fried mush and most men working on a farm relish it.

Sausage can be made from mutton mixed with pork in much the same way as beef is used for similar purposes. A general formula would be 2 parts of mutton to 3 parts pork with seasonings.

With a plentiful supply of good home-cured and home-smoked meats, together with several varieties of sausages, you can feel you are well equipped to feed your family with its share of meat. Everything will have been utilized, nothing will have been wasted. You produced your own meat, you slaughtered and cured and smoked it and put all trimmings and other "left-overs" into appetizing food for your family and you have saved money. You have utilized things at hand and required no transportation facilities. And best of all, you have the very finest in the land for your family and that gives one a perfectly justifiable pride in the work accomplished.

CHAPTER XVII

PRESERVED OR "CANNED" EGGS

As one-half of the yearly egg crop is produced in March, April, May and June consumers would do well to store enough at that time to use when production is light. Fifty dozen eggs should be stored for a family of five to use during the months of October, November, December and January, at which time the market price of eggs is at the highest.

When canning them the eggs must be fresh, preferably not more than two or three days old. This is the reason why it is much more satisfactory to put away eggs produced in one's own chicken yard or one's neighbor's.

Infertile eggs are best if they can be obtained—so, after the hatching exclude the roosters from the flock and kill them for table use as needed.

The shells must be clean. Washing an egg with a soiled shell lessens its keeping quality. The protective gelatinous covering over the shell is removed by water and when this is gone the egg spoils more rapidly. Use the soiled eggs for immediate use and the clean ones for storage.

The shells also must be free from even the tiniest crack. One cracked egg will spoil a large number of sound eggs when packed in water glass.

Earthenware crocks are good containers. The crocks must be clean and sound. Scald them and let them cool completely before use. A crock holding six gallons will accommodate eighteen dozen eggs and about twenty-two pints of solution. Too large crocks are not desirable, since they increase the liability of breaking some of the eggs, and spoiling the entire batch.

It must be remembered that the eggs on the bottom crack first and that those in the bottom of the crock are the last to be removed for use. Eggs can be put up in smaller crocks and the eggs put in the crock first should be used first in the household.

METHOD OF STORING

There are many satisfactory methods of storing eggs. The commercial method is that of cold storage and if it were not for this method winter eggs would be beyond the average purse.

The fact that eggs have been held in cold storage does not necessarily mean that they are of low quality. Carefully handled cold-storage eggs often are of better quality than fresh local eggs that have been improperly cared for.

In the home they may be packed by several methods: Salt, oats or bran; covering them with vaseline, butter, lard, paraffin or prepared ointments; immersion in brine, salicylic acid, water glass (sodium silicate) or limewater.

Any of these methods will keep the eggs for short periods if stored in a cool place. The salt, oats and bran are very satisfactory. The ointments also are satisfactory. The water glass and limewater will keep eggs without loss for a year. However, it is not wise to put down more eggs than is necessary to tide over the period of high price.

WATER GLASS METHOD

"Water glass" is known to the chemist as sodium silicate. It can be purchased by the quart from druggists or poultry supply men. It is a pale yellow, odorless, sirupy liquid. It is diluted in the proportion of one part of silicate to nine parts of distilled water, rain water, or other water. In any case, the water should be boiled and then allowed to cool. Half fill the vessel with this solution and place the eggs in it, being careful not to crack them. The eggs can be added a few at a time until the container is filled. Be sure to keep about two inches of water glass above the eggs. Cover the crock to prevent evaporation and place it in the coolest place available from which the crock will not have to be moved. Wax paper covered over and tied around the top of the crock can be used. Inspect the crock from time to time and replace any water that has evaporated with cool boiled water.

LIMEWATER METHOD

Limewater is also satisfactory for preserving eggs and is slightly less expensive than water glass. A solution is made by placing two or three pounds of unslaked lime in five gallons of water, which has been boiled and allowed to cool, and allowing the mixture to stand until the lime settles and the liquid is clear. The eggs should be placed in a clean earthenware jar or other suitable vessel and covered to a depth of two inches with the liquid. Remove the eggs as desired, rinse in clean, cold water and use immediately.

If using the limewater method add a little of the lime sediment to insure a constantly saturated solution. If a thin white crust appears on the limewater solution it is due to the formation of calcium carbonate coming in contact with the air and consequently does no harm.

CANDLING EGGS AT HOME

If you purchase the eggs that are to be stored it is safer to candle them. Examining eggs to determine their quality is called "candling." Every one knows that some eggs are better than others, but the ease with which the good ones can be picked out is not generally understood. The better the quality of eggs, the surer the housewife can be that they will keep satisfactorily.

HOMEMADE CANDLER

The equipment for candling usually consists of either a wooden, a metal, or a cardboard box and a kerosene lamp or an electric light. A very inexpensive egg candler for home use can be made from a large shoe-box or similar cardboard box. Remove the ends of the box, and cut a hole about the size of a half-dollar in one side. Slip the box over the lamp or electric bulb, darken the room, hold the egg, with the large end up, before the opening in the box and its quality can easily be judged.

SIGNS OF A GOOD EGG

When held before the opening of the candle, good eggs will look clear and firm. The air cell (the white spot at the large end of the eggs) should be small, not larger than a dime, and the yolk may be dimly seen in the center of the egg. A large air cell and a dark, freely moving yolk indicate that the egg is stale.

If the shell contents appear black or very dark, the egg is absolutely unfit for food. If you are in doubt about the quality of any eggs you are candling break a few of them into a dish and examine them. This is an excellent way to learn to know how good and bad eggs look when they are being candled.

Discard all eggs that have shrunken, loose contents, a watery appearance, cracked and thin shells. Eggs of this description will not keep and are apt to spoil the eggs close around them. Any egg that floats in the solution should be discarded.

When packing eggs whether in salt, oats, or in solution place them with small end down. When packing them in salt, oats, etc., do not allow any two eggs to touch.

PACKING THE EGGS

One gallon of water glass as purchased will make enough preservative to preserve from 75 to 100 dozen eggs.

Three gallons of either water glass solution or limewater solution will preserve from 200 to 240 dozen eggs according to the size of the eggs and the shape of the container.

The cost of preserving eggs by the water glass method is about one cent per dozen eggs, not considering the cost of the container. The lime water method is still cheaper.

The following gives the sizes of jars with approximate capacity for eggs and the amount of water glass solution required to cover the eggs:

1 gallon jar—40 eggs, 3½ pints of solution or 1¾ qt.

2 gallon jar—80 eggs, 8 pints of solution or 2 quarts.

3 gallon jar—120 eggs, 11 pints of solution or 5½ quarts.

4 gallon jar—160 eggs, 14½ pints of solution or 7¼ quarts.

5 gallon jar—200 eggs, 18 pints of solution or 9 quarts.

6 gallon jar—216 eggs, 22 pints of solution or 11 quarts.

10 gallon jar—400 eggs, 36 pints of solution or 18 quarts.

HOW TO USE PRESERVED EGGS

When the eggs are to be used, remove them as desired, rinse in clean, cold water, and use immediately.

Eggs preserved in water glass can be used for soft boiling or poaching up to November. Before boiling such eggs prick a tiny hole in the large end of the shell with a needle to keep them from cracking, as the preservative seals the pores of the shell and prevents the escape of gases, which is possible in the strictly fresh egg.

They are satisfactory for frying until about December. From that time until the end of the usual storage period—that is until March—they can be used for omelettes, scrambled eggs, custards, cakes and general cookery. As the eggs age, the white becomes thinner and is harder to beat. The yolk membrane becomes more delicate and it is correspondingly difficult to separate the whites from the yolks. Sometimes the white of the egg is tinged pink after very long keeping in water glass. This is due, probably, to a little iron which is in the sodium silicate, but which apparently does not injure the eggs for food purposes.

CHAPTER XVIII

HOME STORAGE OF VEGETABLES

Towards the end of the canning season most housewives have used every available glass jar and tin can and hesitate about purchasing a new supply. They have dried and brined many products and yet they feel, and rightly so, that they would like still more vegetables for winter use. There still remains another method that they may employ to provide themselves with a plentiful supply of vegetables and these vegetables can be in the fresh state too. Neither canned, dried, pickled or salted but fresh.

Canning, drying, pickling and salting are essential and necessary but they can not take the place of storage. To keep vegetables in their natural state is the easiest and simplest form of food preservation. Of course, you must take proper precautions against freezing and decay. If you do this you can have an abundant supply of many kinds of fresh vegetables all winter, where climatic and living conditions will permit. Storage costs but little money and little effort and yet it is very satisfactory.

There are many vegetables that can be stored to good advantage. They are: Beets, Brussels Sprouts, Beans, Celery, Carrots, Chicory or Endive, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kohl-rabi, Lima Beans, Onions, Sweet Potatoes, Squash (Winter), Salsify or Vegetable Oyster, Tomatoes, Turnips.

To get good results in any kind of storage, you must observe four things:

• 1. Proper ventilation.
• 2. Proper regulation of temperature.
• 3. Sufficient moisture.
• 4. Good condition of vegetables when stored.

There are six different ways to store vegetables. They are: cellar storage, pit storage, outdoor cellar or cave storage, attic storage, sand boxes and pantry storage.

CELLAR STORAGE

We will first of all consider cellar or basement storage. One of the most convenient places for the storage of vegetables is a cool, well-ventilated and reasonably dry cellar underneath the house. This cellar must have windows or some method of ventilation, must not be too warm and not so cold that food will freeze. If there is proper ventilation there can be some dampness without injury to the vegetables. If your cellar or basement floods easily or has water standing in it anywhere it should not be used for vegetable storage.

If there is a furnace in the cellar or basement a small room as far as possible from the heating plant should be partitioned off. Do not build a room in the middle of the cellar, for two sides of the room should consist of outside walls.

If possible have two outside windows for proper regulation of the temperature and for good ventilation. If you cannot have two windows have one.

A very good arrangement for constant circulation of air consists in having a stove-pipe inserted through one of the lower panes of the window to admit cold air. One of the upper panes of the window can be removed to allow for the escape of warm air. That is, of course, if the window is made of nine or twelve small panes of squares of glass. In severely cold weather this upper pane can be replaced or the opening stuffed up in some way.

If you do not have an old stove-pipe you can make a wooden flue of old boards or old discarded boxes.

Most cellars and basements are now made with concrete floors. The ideal floor for storage purposes is an earth floor. However, we can put two or three inches of sand on our concrete floors and get good results. Sprinkle the sand with water from time to time.

Put the vegetables that are to be stored in boxes, baskets, barrels or crates. Use containers that hold only two or three bushels apiece. If larger boxes or barrels are used there is always danger of heating and decay. Of course, proper precautions should be taken against mice.

An excellent way to prevent wilting of crops and shrinkage is to put moist leaves, oak or maple, in the containers with the vegetables. Moist sand is sometimes used but it is much heavier to handle than the leaves. It is no difficult matter to rake the lawn when you are ready to store the vegetables.

The vegetables that are adapted for cellar storage are beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, parsnips, potatoes, salsify and turnips.

PIT STORAGE

There are two kinds of pits that may be used for storage. Those that are not frost-proof and those which are frost-proof.

Some vegetables are not injured by being held in a frozen condition during the winter months. Cabbage is not injured by moderate frost. Cabbage and parsnips will stand freezing and a little thawing, so they can be put in pits or better still, boxes or barrels set into the ground may be used. Make the pit mound shaped. If the earth is mounded around the box, barrel or pit, surface water cannot run in.

If using this kind of storage do not store the products until both the ground and the products are frozen solid. The idea is to keep the vegetables frozen or to have very few freezings and thawings, and those few should be gradual.

After the pit has been made or the box or barrel has been set into the ground and filled with vegetables, it should be covered first with a piece of burlap or carpet, then with a mouse-proof board cover and finally with straw or similar material. When taken from the pit, the vegetables can be thawed out over night in cold water, after which they can be kept in the cellar for a short length of time.

The pits for keeping vegetables free from frost must be carefully and thoughtfully made, but they are cheap and are very useful and practical when caves or cellars are not convenient.

The frost-proof pit for storing vegetables should always be placed in as well-drained a place as possible. A shallow excavation should be made from one to two feet deep, four feet wide and as long as desired. Line the pit with straw, hay or leaves, then place the vegetables in a conical pile on the straw. Cover the vegetables with six inches of the material used in making the lining. This is covered with three or four inches of earth. The straw is allowed to extend up through the earth at the top of the pile, thus assuring ventilation.

When it becomes colder add more covering to the pit by another layer of straw and a layer of earth. In very cold climates a layer of manure or corn stalks will afford protection against frost.

It is well to make several small pits rather than one larger one for the reason that when a pit has once been opened it is difficult to protect the remaining vegetables from frost.

It is advisable to store several varieties of vegetables in one pit so that when each pit is opened you have a variety of vegetables. If you follow this plan separate the various crops by using straw or leaves.

Pits are entered by chopping a hole through the frozen earth at one end, large enough to reach into or crawl into. After the vegetables have been obtained keep the hole stuffed and covered most carefully and deeply with old sacks and straw.

If the smaller pits are used, a decidedly better arrangement, take out all the vegetables in the pit and those that are not needed for immediate consumption can be placed in the cellar storage room, or other cool place, until needed. Do not use those pits if you live where winter rains are abundant as the pits will become water soaked and the vegetables will suffer more or less decay.

OUTDOOR CELLAR STORAGE

Outdoor cellars or caves may be cheaply built for more or less temporary use or they may be very expensively built of concrete, brick, or clay blocks. Of course, the latter are permanent storing places and offer perfect storage for potatoes, carrots, cabbages, parsnips, beets, turnips and salsify.

The objectionable features of indoor cellar storage is that such storage does not furnish ideal conditions for keeping the vegetables fresh for any great length of time.

The objectionable feature to the pit storage is the inaccessibility to these pits during severe weather.

The outdoor cellar or cave overcomes both these objections. The outdoor cellar or cave is an underground structure, preferably built in a hillside and fully covered with earth except at one end only where the entrance is located. If there are doors at both ends it is almost impossible to prevent freezing in very cold weather. The cave door should fit perfectly and there should be a hatchway or door over the steps leading down to the cave door.

A very satisfactory inexpensive cellar can be made by digging an excavation about 5 ft. deep and in this erecting a frame by setting posts in rows near the dirt walls. Saw these posts off at uniform height and place plates on their tops. On these plates place rafters. Board up completely with the exception of the entrance. Cover the whole with dirt or sod and in cold climates add a layer of straw or fodder.

A ventilation must be provided in the roof at the back end. A sewer tile with the bell end up makes a very good flue. A dirt floor is satisfactory as it contains moisture. If there is any seepage use a drain tile to carry it off.

The more pretentious permanent cellars are provided with air spaces to furnish insulation; are provided with large ventilation shafts through the roof and cold air intakes under the floor. Thorough drainage is obtained by placing a line of tile around the outside wall and also by having the air intake serve as a drain for surplus water that might get into the cave. The floor is cement or concrete. Such a cave is expensive but is a permanent structure and a good addition to any farm or estate. If properly made it is possible to maintain a temperature of 34 to 38 degrees without much fluctuation during the winter months. This kind of storage is not only adapted for vegetables but apples as well. It is better adapted to the Northern, Eastern and Western States than to the Southern States, where it is likely to be warm at the time the vegetables are ready for storage. When making the cave, have it as near as possible to the kitchen door. Sometimes caves are made so that they can be entered from the house, cellar or porch.

ATTIC STORAGE

Some vegetables such as onions, squashes, sweet potatoes and pumpkins can be stored in the attic in crates which allow free circulation of air. They must be absolutely free from bruises and must be well ripened and cured. To cure the vegetables expose them to the air for a few days in the shade. Remove the tops of onions before storing. The attic is much better for storing onions than the basement. Squashes are susceptible to cold and moisture, so are suitable for the attic.

Be very careful in handling the squashes to prevent breaking the stems off. Watch pumpkins and squash carefully and at the first sign of decay, use immediately or can.

SAND BOX STORAGE

Sand boxes in cellars, pits or caves are desirable for beets, turnips, kohl-rabi, carrots, winter radishes and rutabagas. The sand keeps them cold and prevents evaporation. Kohl-rabi should be tender when stored.

PANTRY STORAGE

Where there is no attic or where it is inconveniently reached, the products that are adapted to a very dry place can be stored on the pantry shelves or in a dry cellar near the furnace. They are onions, squashes, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

The keeping qualities of all these vegetables, no matter what storage is used, depends chiefly upon their condition when placed in storage. All products to be stored must be mature, but not overgrown. Root crops should be dry while the ground is in good working condition. All vegetables should be allowed to become surface dry before placing them in storage.

White or Irish potatoes, especially, should not be exposed to bright sunlight any length of time. Only vegetables free from disease or injury should be stored. Any that are damaged can be used immediately, or can be canned or dried.

Further particulars for the storing of fresh vegetables are given in the following tables.