The herald., 1893-11-06
PRUNEs THAT ARE FULL OF FEET
A Curious Custom of Some Fruit
Packers.
Comparison with Treading Out
Grape Juice in Europe.
1t Produces What Is Known as q Boot
Heel Flavor Regarded as Espe-
cially Deliclous-Descrip-
tion of the Process.

Nearly every one can remember will
what mingled feelings they have reat
the stories OF European travellers abou
the custom of pressing grapes with tn,
bare feet, in vogue in some sections.
1t was not altogether pleasant to re-
member the custom when quaffins
bumpers of generous foreign wines.
The feet of the peasants might b,
muscular but not always clean, and
such thoughts might very we'll interfere
with the aesthetic enjoyment OF nectar
of the gods, if it bore the impress of the
feet of Bacchus.
From wine to prunes is quite Jump
but 1t has come to the knowledge of a
reporter OF the HERALD that quite SIM
liar custom to that referred to in the
making of wine, is followed in our own
city of Los Angeles by some fruit ship
ping houses in the packing OF prunes.
There is, however, marked differ
euce in one respect, and that is that the
prunes are stamped upon by men who
wear their boots.
People who are fond of getting full Of
prunes may take some pleasure in hav-
ing pointed out 20 them the methods by
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into shape for them.
There are more people who eat prunes
than most people imagine. Why it
should excite a smile for anyone 10
admit fondness for prunes is one Of
those questions which may be referred
to experts.
The fact remains that people do eat
prunes and like them.
nf II
prunes. Our boarding house always
has them, and, speaking with precision,
they are not palatable. Yet no one but
housekeepers and bosrdinghouse-keep-
ere know how useful an article the prune
has become.
Fruitmen can also point with pride to
the growing demand for them.
just as it has been said that the wine
made from the foot-trodden grape DOS
sesses a rarer flavor, it may be suggested
that fruit men have found that the boot
trodden prune commands a higher
market price than those packed in a
more orthodox manner.
Take the ordinary boot and there is a
flavor about it after it has been
worn by the ordinary iaborer around
fruit houses for some time that is some
thing out of the common. The particles
OF extraneous matter which cling to it
form chemical combination with the
luscious prune, which one should not
attempt to describe with mare words.
Old leather and prune is coming to be
recognized by druggists as one of their
iavorite extracts, and the older the
leather the better the perfume.
There is also another reason for the
use OF boots on prunes, as now practiced
in shipping houses in Los Angeles.
Strange as it may seem the boot-heel is
indispensable in the firm packing OF the
Iruit. 1t presses the unruly prune more
irmly and jgbbingly than any machine
that has yet been invented, and the
packers say that the nails do not injure
the prunea at all, only pack them bet
Ter.
Almost any day during the prune
reason visit at the packing houses will
'how the person who disbslieves this
tory that pru1es are packed as stated.
There is no intention in briefly refer
ing to this curious custom, of making
my invidious remarks about it, but to
,all the attention of those who use
,runes to the inside points of merit in
The fruit, 80 that when they call for their
avorite article they may ask for boot
packed prunes rather than the palmer
and less favored article. Under no cir
,amstances should they attempt to
wash their prunes, because that de-
stroys whit is technically known in the
tIade as the boot-heel aroma.