"KAN THE KAISER."

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1918, Page 2

"KAN THE KAISER."

AMERICA WINNING THE WAR IN THE KITCHEN. (By G Ivy Sanders, in the London Daily Mail.) • New York. These United' States of America are a country o£ gigantic food production. For the requirements of America's millions there is a super-abundance, which lias resulted in normal times in very great waste and extravagance. Thi3 year, with the planting of over two million "war gardens," as they are called here, stimulated by the National Emergency Food Garden. Commission, the production will toe especially, great. This excess supply is not intended to go to waste; the conservation of food, to answer the enormous demands made upon the United States for furnishing food for the European Allies, is a national duty, which the people have been quick to realise and to which they hare been very ready to respond. Very soon, too, vast .store supplies must go to the American soldiers in France. In_every city, town, and villa?? 'of the United Sto Us'the abundance of summer is heing made to supply the needs of the winter. Herculean being exerted to utilise perishables to the utmost; to save staples to. send to the Allied countries; to reduce the consnmption of wheat, sugar, meat—especially pork, lamb, and veal—and fat, and to substitute other materials of similar food value. Mr- Hoover is a benevolent tyrant who is obeyed. To meet his demands communal canning (bottling) kitchens have been established all over the continent. Here the surplus products of the country are being preserved by the method of "canning'' or by drying The great war phrase here is "Kan the Kai< ser!" I note it on dead walla, I find it chalked on army wagons. Every town and village possesses it<i own national storehouse. Millions of American women have enlisted in this vast Army of Canners. Every housewife is becoming' a. member of the societv for the elimination of waste. The women's fight with waste is one of the Allies' most valuable weapons of war. To "help the movement along." as they say here, communal canning and drying'kitchens have been established to combat the very serious leakage that takes place at the various docks. DRYING KITCHENS. To ensure qua}ity ! "the New York Health Department; which inspects all the food that enters the city, requires perfect condition in 85 per cent of the whole consignment. If over 15 per cent, is bad the whole is condemned. It is to rescue the good from the had of the discarded whole that these kitchens have been formed. Voluntary workers sort the fruit and vegetables at the docks; the sound is packed in sacks or barrels and conveyed to the kitchens, where it is either canned or dried. The rest is destroyed. A few days ago I visited one of these kitchens in a slum district of New York, generally known as the Ghetto, on the banks of the East. River. Here, despite the shade temperature of 92, women of every station of life, gentle and simple, were engaged upon the work of canning onions and cabbages in the long, low' rooms of the school house. The heat was by no means mitiga'ti\l by the glowing fires and the boiling pans of vegetables. These women were indeed "doing their bit." In order that women of all classes may enlist in the good work a card system has been introduced, and everv voluntary helper receives a credit of 7%d an hour for her work. In the autumn and winter this credit will he paid in the products that are now being canned- Many, of course, will leave"these for the benefit of those in need, and the surplus will be sold at a minimum cost or given away to worthy institutions. .During the four weeks'the kitchen had been running nearly 5000 giant jars of onions, beet ,carrots, cabbages, peaches, cherries, plums, pickles and conserves had been rescued from the garbage heap and stored. Vegetables are cleaned and "trimmed," and then boiled in boiling salted water and packed in 'sterilised jars fitted with sterilised rubber rings. The jars are filled to overflowing with boiling salted water, covered with a loosely adjusted top, and'the whole is put into a boiling water hath and sterilised for two hours or more, the time depending, of course, upon the vegetable "canned." The method of canning fruit is snnilar ' except that sugar is used instead of salt. Owing, however, Ito the shortage of sugar in Europe maize svrup is beino . substituted with equally good results. ° HOW DRYING IS DONE. The strong recommendation for drying fruit and vegetables is the slight cost and the simplicity of the process, added to the fact that practically all fruit and vegetables can be preserved in this manner. Cleanliness of the products to be dried and of the utensils to be used in their preparation is imperative, iwd all roots must be washed so thoroughly as to leave no earthy smell or flavor. The principal methods of drying are: Sun-drying, Drying by artificial heat, Drying by electric fan. In the communal kitchen I visited the third method had been adopted. The sliced fruit or vegetables were placed upon trays a foot wide and three feet. in length. These wore stacked and a fan placed close to one end with the current directed along the trays lengthwise. By this process the drying is done in twenty-four hours or less, but in the homes the other two methods are more generally favored. The simplest form of sun-drying is to spread the slices or pieces on sheets of paper or lengths of musiin and expose them to the sun. This requires days that are very bright and hot, and infinite care must be taken to guard against rain or dew. Another form of sun-drying is by the use of trays or galvanised wire. The natural sunshine heat of early September in New York is equal to the very hottest day in England. Throughout America, French beans, '. Mma beans, garden peas, sweet corn (maize), carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, beet, celery, cabbage, cauliflower! rhu- '. barb, spinach, and sweet potatoes arc being preserved in this manlier, and also every kind of berry, as well as cherries, plums, anricots, annles, pears, and peaches. Vast reserves are thus being stocked. Fruit and vegetable drying has been little practised for a generation or more. Tn iihe past, it was domestic, to-day it is ■national; in the futur" it will be universal,