Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-04-28
BEET GREENS.
Fond Recollections Stirred by a Sign
in Front Of Grocery Store.

| New beets!'
| Stuck in mound of the SAME,
piled in front of a grocery store, this
sign brought to the mind OF one man
at least recollection Of beet greens
and other things
He was born and raised, this man.
in smaller town. where his folks
lived in a house that had front yard
and back yard and also vegetable
garden in which they raised all their
| own vegetables-corn and beans and
tomatoes and squash and cucumbera
and peas and beets. Every spring
| they dug up their garden and planted
| 1t and then in due course they en-
joyed the luxury of really fresh
vegetables luxury to be found in
no other way.
And so they had beet greens. And
very good the beet greens were
cooked positively fresh from The
earth, and much they were enjoyed
as among the first of the fresh green
| things from the garden. The man
remembered pleasantly how he used
to come across here and there in his
helping among the greens the tiny
young beets, each dainty morsel by
itself.
Very good, the beet greens; and
| then this man reflected how impossi-
BILE it would be to get them in the
city in their best estate, fresh, as they
used to get them there; and was not
this equally true of all vegetables?
And so he came to dwell in his mind
on the other delights of the garden
The yellow crook neck squash, for
instance, not the big, orange colored
squash, but the small, yellow crook
necks of the beautiful color and the
unapproachable favor that were
grown in their own garden and COOK
ed freshly picked and tasting as diff
ferent from squashes long off the
vines as can be imagined He always
loved the yellow crook necks, and
really he has never yet been able tc
make up his mind which he liked bet
ter-crook neck yellow squashes OF
asparagus.
When he ate asparagus he thought
that that was the finest thing that
the earth produced, but he thought the
same of crook neck squash when he
ate that. Could one be confronted
with happier dilemma? And the
man hoped that he might never solve
| it, but keep always these two great
ioys-if he could get them fresh.
And the cucumbers. Think of eat
ing cucumbers not old and withered,
or kept on ice, but think of going out
into the garden in the morning and
looking over the vines for cucumbers
at precisely the right stage of young
ripeness, and finding them cool and
with the due still on them, and Their
fancy them cracking. fairly crack
ling when you cut them, they were sc
crisp and brittle. Why, nobody
knows what cucumbers are at all till
he has eaten them fresh from the
vines in the early morning.
And the tomatoes; not picked hall
green and carted around and ripened
in old age and decrepitude. but to-
matoes full flush ripe and picked sc
in the fine fulness of their flavor and
eaten fresh! And the corn from the
garden; and the lima beans.
And think of the succotash; the
man repeated that word to himself
and dwelt upon it fondly, succotash:
of succotash made from freshly gath
cred corn and beans fresh from the
garden. succotash not to be had un.
der any other conditions at any
price.
And that price idea suggested tc
the man as he looked at the wilted
pile labeled new beets," that there
are some things that money can't buy
and one of these is the delight OF
truly fresh vegetables. That is some
thing that a man might be worth
s71S,000, 900 and yet II he live In ths
city never know. a delight that is re-
served for those who live on the
ground where the vegetables are rails
ed.