Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-02-23
PuMPKiN YAM-koAsrED.

n Enshusiastic Editors hucious Descrip-
tion.
Atlanta Constitution.
The very thought of the old times when
the boys and girls gathered around the
wide hearths and drew the smoking yams
1rom the ashes were enough to infame the
uninds and arouse the appetites of the gen
etation of dyspeptics that is growing
mp around us; We mean, of course, the
generation that is growing up in the cities.
In the country where there are fresh air
and plenty of room the roasted yam is still
IN institution. and as the country en-
braces by far the largest and most import
ant part Of Georgia, it may be said that
the roasted yam is Georgia institution.
There is surely some virtue in the pyra
mids of glowing embsrs that form in the
corners of every genuine Georgia fireplace
No bread that the French cook RAY bake
can be as sweet and as edifying to the
palate as the hot and smoking ashcake. 1t
is ct once bread and meat and dessert.
Tho sweetness of the corn and the strength
Of the staff of life are stored therein. So
it Is with the roasted yam. The sweets of
ell the spring and summer months, the
sugary saps, with their indescribable
favors, cannot escape through tho warm
embers. The mellowness, the aroma,
the essence, that escape you in apple
blooms and clover blossoms, are held in
the roasted yam to bo precipitated against
your expectant palate.
There was an absurd discussion in q
Northern paper some time ago as to
whether the possum should be baked or
barbecued, and as to whether it should DO
served hot or cold. The humblest negro
in the land would settle the controversy
instantly by saying that possum is "good
amy way you fix him." The Georgia
spumpkin yam is good, no matter how it is
booked or served-boiled or baked or fried !;
hot or cold. But all its delicious flavor
and color (there is color as apparent to
the taste as to the eye)-all its best and
rarest qualities-are preserved by the
glowing embers of a Georgia oak or hick-
ory fire.
The roasted yam is also intimately con-
nscted with tho history of Georgian hos
pitality-a hospitality as genial and as
patient as the Virginian variety. There is
legend to the effect that stranger wan
dering over the red roads of Middle GsOr-
gia on winters night saw light gleam-
ing ahead and soon heard the welcome
barking Of dogs. A comfortable looking
cabin stood by the roadside, and this the
wsyfarer saluted with s' Hello" at once
peremptory aud plaintive. The response
was prompt and hearty. The strangers
horse was turned loose in the yard and a
piggin full of corn placed at his disposal
The stranger himself was pulled into the
house and implored to make himself
ct homo. Hugo logs blazed on the
hearth, and upon one side under.
nsath . massive bow legged andiron.
Vas . pyramid of embers. An appetiz
ing fragrance filled the air Around
the fire number of rosy-cheeked, bright
eyed children we're squatting. Mother,
tat and oontented, smoked her pipe in the
nefner; and an enormous cat sat by her,
3axily Watching the sparks as they disap-
peared ia the black cavern of the chimney.
1here was not a chair to be seen, but the
genial host was equal to the emergency.
Pull mp = pumpkin, stranger, an help
16 skin . tater." With that he
1utleA pumpkin from under the
bods ohe stranger seated himself as
gracefully as possible, the pyramid
3f ashes was torn down, the smoking yams
wero drawn forth, and just such another
delightful meal as that-whele hospitality
oheerod on the appetite that yearned for
the sayory sweets of the roasted yam-has
newer been chronicled.
This legend has given Georgia hospital
~ IT. watchword and motto: "Come
right in, stranger Pull up punkin and
help us skin q tater ~ And it may be
aeid here that hospitality could not more
justify Itself than by Iaaking
the roasted yam the basis of it's Offering.