The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-04-30
FRUIT RAISING.
How Superabundance of Fruit May Be-
Made Profitable.

How a Superabundance of Fruit May Be
Made Profitable.
Dried, with or without stoning. cher
ries are scarce at eighteen to thirty
cents pound, and have seen choice
pitted cherries at higher price. Hard
" any fruit is easier to prepare, as
cherries want no pairing, and no dried
fruit keeps so much richness. Picked
cherries are cheap, excellent relish.
and would sell at remarkable prices il
any were to be found in market.
When fruit sells too low for profit il
Is time to preserve it and reap treble
gains. The quickest and cheapest
ways of keeping fruit will be found
most profitable, and are the only ways
in which grower can work off crop
in time to save it. Dried fruit is easily
handled and is coming back into favor
with knowing housekeepers, who rec
ognize good things and know how they
should be cooked. No expense for
evaporators is necessary. | long since
made up my mind that evaporated fruit
is inferior to sun-dried In flavor. and
talking with old dealers in family
stores, find they prefer the sun-dried
for their own use. The best cook l
ever knew sac the same, and there is
reason for it. The sun ripens and de-
velops sugar and flavor in cut fruit
dried in its rays. To have nice quail
ity of dried fruit, select firm, fine, ripe
specimens, wipe clean, pare and cut
with silver knives, as steel turns them
back on the edges, and hurry into the
sun as fast as they can be prepared.
The cheapest and best way of drying
fruit is to lay it on lengths of cheese
cloth, suspended on frame, out OF
doors, in full sun, with white mosquito
netting over to keep off shreds and in
sects. This allows the air to reach
both sides of the fruit at once, and
when you want to turn it, the whole
can be swung over on another cloth,
leaving the first ready for new
batch. Apples should be pared, cored
and cut in eight pieces. Peaches
should not be pared, for the richest
flavor is lost with the skin. They
should have the fur removed by dip
ping baskets of them into weak boiling
| I've of wood ashes or common potash,
and wiping them with coarse towels
Common peaches only need to be cut
| in halves to dry. We had peaches
dried in this way last winter, which
when cooked would be hard to tell
from the best canned peaches in looks,
with richer flavor.
Picked peaches might be as staple
as cucumber pickles and sold by the
tirkin instead of the quart. Apple and
peach butter ought to be in every
| grocery, as plenty as raspberry jam,
| and a great deal better. Inferior fruit
can be put to good use in this way,
only no fruit should be cooked in metal
kettles, brass, copper or tin. Brass
kettles spoiled the sale ofold-fashioned
apple-butter. Sometimes l find box
of it at the large Boston grocers, but
when it leaves a coppery stain on a
knife blade, and still more coppery
taste in the mouth, dealers are shy OF
recommending it. Yet there is no
canned fruit or preserves better than
good apple-butter stewed down in its
| own fruit sugar till its juice thickens
into syrup. Ii you have not porcelain
kettle, make it in three-gallon stone
jars, filling the oven with them, and
you will have a better thing with less
| trouble.
With all the tons of grapes raised.
how is it that there is not a gallon OF
grape syrup to be had for love or money
in market? If you don't know that
grape juice boiled down to a clear
syrup is the most relishing thing in
sickness or health, for consumptives
and to keep people from getting con
sumptive, to be eaten as food or diluted
for drink, that would Danish wine soon
er than all the temperance societies,
you have something to learn. This
article, once known, would prevent all
danger of an oyer-crop of grapes, fol
it would be made and kept by the bar
rel, and exported for use in all climates.
The new production of cider Jelly,
which is merely cider boiled down,
without any addition till it is solid,
dark jelly, is great gift to the house,
keeper, and will be the salvation of the
apple orchards. What if apples are
fifty cents a barrel in October? Set the
cider mills going, anu the huge enam
eled evaporating pans. Perhaps cider
| jelly at twelve cents a pound will repay
the work, as no sugar is used.-Cor
VicE'S Monthly.