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page 18
Part II
HOME DRYING MANUAL
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Drying vegetables and fruits
for winter use is one of the vital national needs. As a national need it
becomes a patriotic duty. As a patriotic duty it should be done in every
family.
Failure to prepare vegetables and fruits for winter use by Drying
is one of the worst example of American extravagance. During the summer
nature provides an over-abundance. This year, with the planting of 5,285,000
home food gardens, stimulated by the National War Garden Commission and the
United States Department of Agriculture, this abundance will be especially
large. The excess supply is not meant to go to waste. The over-abundance of
the summer should be made the normal supply of the winter. The individual
family should conduct Drying on a liberal scale. In no other way can there
be assurance that America's food supply will meet our own needs. In no other
way, surely, can we answer the enormous demands made upon us for furnishing
food for our European Allies. |
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IMPORTANCE OF FOOD THRIFT |
Winter buying of vegetables and fruits is costly. It means that you pay
transportation, cold-storage and commission merchants' charges and profits.
Summer is the time of lowest prices. Summer, therefore, is the time to buy
for winter use.
Every pound of food products grown this year will be needed to
combat Food Famine. The loss that can be prevented, the money saving that
can be effected and the transportation relief that can be brought about make
it essential that every American household should make vegetable and fruit
Drying a part of its program of Food Thrift. The results can be gained in no
other way.
Vegetable and fruit Drying have been little practiced for a
generation or more. Its revival on a general scale is the purpose of this
manual. There is no desire to detract from the importance of canning
operations. Drying must not be regarded as taking the place of the
preservation of vegetables and fruits in tins and glass jars. It must be
viewed as an important adjunct thereto. Drying is important and economical
in every home, whether on the farm, in the village, in the town, or in the
city. For city dwellers it has the special advantage that little storage
space is required for the dried product. One hundred pounds of some fresh
vegetables will reduce to 10 pounds in drying without loss of food value or
much of the flavor. |
This year's need for vegetable and fruit Drying is given added emphasis by
the shortage of tin for the manufacture of cans. This condition has created
an unusual demand for glass jars. For this year, therefore, Drying is of
more than normal importance. Dried products can be stored in receptacles
that could not be used for canning. This is excellent conservation.
Fig. 1. Carrots cut lengthwise.
DRYING IS SIMPLE
A strong point in connection with vegetable and fruit Drying
is the ease with which it may be done. The process is simple. The cost is
slight. In every home the necessary outfit, in its simplest form, is already
at hand. Effective Drying may be done on plates or dishes placed in the
oven, with the oven door partially open. It may be done on the back of the
kitchen stove, with these same utensils, while the oven is being used for
baking. It may also be done on sheets of paper or lengths of muslin spread
in the sun and protected from insects and dust. |
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