The Wilmington morning star., 1940-11-11
Christmas
Gifts Are Suggested
Housewives Urged To Begin
Now To Make Attractive
Yule Presents
By MRS. CORNELIA C. MORRIS
Food Conservation and Marketing
Specialist
State College Extension Service

SpeCldIlSI
State College Extension Service
With Christmas less than seven
weeks away it is not too early
for housewives to begin making
plans for homemade gifts t a t
will be welcome to friends and
the family during the holidays.
The question of what to give
often leaves us in a quandary
when the answer may be right at
home in the kitchen. In the sugar
canister, the fruit basket, the
spice box and the flour bin are
the makings of gifts that express
good wishes in the time and care
given to their preparation.
Fruit cake and plum pudding
are old-time favorites and a be
made weeks in advance of the holi-
days. Other Observation-Disclosures
gifts might be sailed or roasted
nuts, ~crystalized fruit peel, mar
malades, jellies and candy. She'll
ed walnuts and pecans packed in
attractive glass containers make
acceptable gifts, too.
Colorful jellies can be. m a d e
from canned juice which was put
up when the fruit was in season,
but for those housewives who were
not so foresighted, cranberries and
citrus fruits make excellent sub
stituticns. For marmalades, citrus
fruits are especially desirable be-
cause of their flavor and pectin
content. Oranges, lemons and
grapefruit are now in season and
are at the best stage of ripeness
for making marmalades. Later in
the year they will have lost much
Of their valuable pectin content.
Marmalade Recipe
The following recipe for citrus
fruit marmalade is a favorite and
yields a surprising amount of mar
malade:
Wash one orange, one grapefruit
and one lemon and cut into thin
slices with a very sharp knife.
Sharpen the knife frequently. This
amount of fruit will measure one
quart. Add 3 quarts of water tc
the fruit and boil for 80 minutes,
Stir frequently with a wooden
spoon during the cooking. Lee
stand over night in an enamelec
preserving kettle. Next morning
boil 20 minutes and let stand. unit
cool. Measure. ut should measure
one and three-fourths ~quarts.) Ado
an equal amount of sugar 6 Il
pounds.)
Cook rapidly until the jelly stage
is reached. Cool for two or three
minutes before filling jars, to keeI
the fruit from rising to the top
Small globe shaped jars make at
tractive containers for gifts.
If you have ever had the mis-
fortune to make c~rystallizec
orange or grapefruit peel that was
tough and hard, you will like the
following recipe. The peel, if pro
perly made, will be tender and de-
licious and will keep fresh for
days.
Wash and scrub fruit. Remove
peel. Cover peel with water anc
boil for IS minutes. Drain. Cover
with water and repeat the boiling
process three times. or until the
peel is tender. Drain and cut peel
into narrow strips. To the peel Of
one grapefruit add three pints Of
water and one pound of sugar
Cook until transparent and the
syrup has been absorbed.
Remove from fire and dry the
peel on a wire cake rack. Roll
in granulated sugar. When cold,
arrange the strips of peel on a
clear glass plate, wrap with celo-
plane and tie with ribbon or tin
sci cord. This makes an attrac'
tive and inexpensive gift.
Plans for making any of the
aforementioned products should be
made very carefully. See that all
supplies and equipment needed are
on hand before any of the actual
work is begun. For best results.
concentrate on only one or t w
products.
Gather Pine Needles
The most satisfactory time tt
gather pine needles for basket
making is in the fall after they
have fallen from the trees. The
needles are mature then and are
of a lovely shade of brown. A
shade that always will be t e
same no matter how long the bas-
ket is used. If a green color is
preferred to brown. boughs OF
green needles can be broken from
trees and hung up until dry, al
though evenness of color is diff
cult to obtain by this method.
After the needles are cured to
the desired shade of brown or
green, the green needles should
be pulled from the boughs and
both brown and green needles
should be dipped into boiling wa
ter for a few minutes to destroy
insect eggs. Dry the needles and
then rub them off with a coarse
cloth. After they are polished in
this manner, tie them in half.
pound bundles and store them for
future discriminating
Herbs Make Nice Gifts
A window box of herbs is the
first step toward the cultivation
of an outdoor herb garden that Of
fers both gift and marketing op-
portunities. Fresh and dried herbs
and jars and bag of fragrant
herbs are in demand in the gift
shops. With a little Imagination,
herb vinegars, mixed herbs for
candied herbs and