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Vinegar, Pickles, and Pickling: Potatoes

To Store Potatoes. -Potatoes are usually stored in bins or barrels in a dark cellar. They should not be left in the field any longer than is necessary to dry them after being dug, as they are injured by exposure to direct sunshine. It is advisable to cover the bottom of the bin or barrel with a layer of fine, dry sand, throw over the top a piece of burlap and place a layer of sand on this. They should be examined once or twice a month during the winter, and if they commence to rot should be picked over, care being taken to handle them carefully so as not to bruise them. To Keep Potatoes from Sprouting.

To keep old potatoes not intended for seed from withering and sprouting, place them in a sack or handled basket and lower them into boiling water for a minute or two, moving them about so that the water will reach all parts of the surface. Lay them out on a flat surface to dry thoroughly before storing them away.

The boiling water kills the germs.

Potatoes thus treated will continue practically as good as new until new potatoes come in. By this process old potatoes can be held over until the market price is at its height.

Or they can be preserved for domestic use when there are only new potatoes at high prices on the market.

To Store Sweet Potatoes. - Pack in boxes or barrels on a very hot day in summer in clean, dry sand. Take care that the potatoes do not touch one another, and place in a dry storeroom where the temperature will range between 40° and 60° F. Care must be taken not to bruise them, and they must be bone dry when packed.

Small quantities procured from dealers in winter may be kept in sand near the kitchen stove, or in any warm, dry place.

To Store Cabbage. -Cabbages are not injured by frost, but wither and wilt in a drying heat. Hence they should be kept in a cool, dark, and moist place, but must not be kept in standing water, as it injures their flavor, or packed together, else they will heat and rot.

Cut them before the severe fall frosts, leaving about 2 inches or more of the stem attached. Let the outside leaves remain on. Tie a strong cord about the stalks, and hang them from the timbers of the ceiling of a cool, dry cellar, heads downward.

Several cabbages may be suspended on one cord one above another, and in this way a large number can be stored in an ordinary cellar, just enough space being left among them to admit of a circulation of air.

Or pack in sawdust in large casks or packing cases. Take care to have a layer of several inches of sawdust between the cabbages and the box.

Put them in any outhouse and let them freeze. Sawdust being a nonconductor, they will not thaw out until spring, and will not be injured. Or cabbages may be stored out of doors by loosening the earth about the roots and pulling them up without shaking off the dirt which adheres. Now set them out in furrows, burying the roots just as they grow up to the head in soil. Let the heads touch. Drive posts in the ground, build a shed roof over them of rough boards or poles high enough so that there will be circulation of air between the roof and the cabbages, and cover the roof with corn fodder or straw. Pack straw or meadow hay around the sides to keep out the snow, and let them freeze. They will keep green and fresh all winter. - Sauerkraut. Sauerkraut consists of sliced cabbage laid down between layers of common salt-at the rate of about one pint of salt to a barrel of cabbage-in a wooden tub or firkin, and with the addition of black pepper, anise, mustard, caraway, or celery seed if desired. Thoroughly scald the tub, firkin, or cask. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and use them to line the cask. Slice the heart of the cabbage fine by means of a slaw cutter or sharp knife. Place a layer of clean leaves on the bottom of the cask.

Sprinkle over them a small handful of salt and put in a layer of sliced cabbage about 6 inches in depth, using the outer leaves as a lining to keep the sliced cabbage from the sides of the cask. Sprinkle over the cab- PRESERVATION OF MEAT AND VEGETABLES 711 bage a small handful of salt, and by means of a wooden beetle or the end of a round stick of hard wood, pound the cabbage until it is a solid mass, or until the juice just makes its appearance, but do not pound or salt the cabbage too much. Now add another layer of cabbage and another handful of salt, and SO continue pounding down each layer solidly until the cask is nearly full.

Cover the top over with the loose outer leaves, and lay over these several thicknesses of cheese cloth. Lay on a loose cover of boards and on this a weight of stone equal to 25 or 30 pounds. Let the cask stand in a warm place for three or four weeks, during which it will ferment and give off at first a very disagreeable odor.

After forty-eight hours, if brine has not been formed, add a little salt water, about as salt as tears, to cover the cabbage. After two days more, add more salt water, if necessary, until brine forms over the top of the board cover and a scum appears.

Remove the cloth cover, taking the brine with it, rinse thoroughly in cold water, wring dry, and return to its place. Continue to do this every few days until it ceases to ferment.

This will require four or five weeks.

It is then ready for use and may be stored in any cool, dark place.

Sauerkraut is usually made in the fall for winter use, but if it is desired to keep what is left for use in summer, squeeze out the brine through cheese cloth. Select a suitable earthenware jar, sprinkle the bottom with salt and pack the sauerkraut in this.

Make a brine by dissolving 1 tablespoonful of salt to a quart of coid water. Bring to a boil over a slow fire removing the scum as it rises. Set aside to cool and pour over the sauerkraut. Lay over the top several thicknesses of cheese cloth, and tie over the jar a piece of cotton batting.

This will keep until the hottest days of summer.

Cauliflower. In a well-drained part of the garden dig a ditch 12 or 15 inches deep and 12 inches wide.

Pack the cauliflowers in this with the roots down and cover with earth up to the heads. Fill the trench with hay or straw 6 or 8 inches thick, and weight it down with stone, earth, or boards.

Or pack the cauliflowers on the cellar bottom, burying the roots and stalks in earth. In this way they can be kept until the 1st of March or later.