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Cranberry
to each pint of the juice; also the rind and juice of one lemon to four quarts of juice; stir until the sugar is dissolved; and when beginning to boil, time it, as it will take from twenty to twenty-five minutes; pour into jars, and store when cold." Among old-fashioned flowering plants, the Rose Geranium has always occupied a prominent place in popular favour. Our grandmothers, and perhaps some of their grandmothers before them, have been known to strew the fragrant leaves of this aromatic plant among their household linen, and their persona lingerie; but few persons know the culinary value of the same homely plant. The next time you are making Crab-apple jelly try the following recipe with a few glasses: "Have the Geranium leaves washed so as to free them from any possible insects, or parasites, and dry them gently; then just before pouring the hot jelly into the glasses, throw a small young Geranium leaf, slightly crushed, into the bottom of each glass; it may be allowed to remain until the jelly is used, and will not spoil this in any way. The result is a specially scented, and cordial flavour, which improves the jelly (whether of Crab-apple, or of Cranberry) amazingly." "Sometimes also when baking a cake it will serve a similar grateful purpose to line an earthen plate with fresh Geranium leaves, and turn the hot cake out upon them, leaving it there until quite cold. The steam absorbs volatile fragrance from the leaves, giving the cake a most dainty flavour which suggests nothing so nearly as the odour of a 'La France' rose." Moreover, as an anti-cancerous remedy the Geranium has recently acquired some considerable reputation, and an Essence is made from the whole plant for curative purposes of such a nature.
Verjuice abounds with tannin, and is a capital external application for old sprains, as well as for drying up warts, and causing them to wither away.
CRANBERRY. (See WHORTLEBERRY, and BILBERRY FRUITS.) THE Cranberry order of plants, found growing abundantly in England about heaths, and mountainous districts, affords several berried shrubs, the fruits of which possess some medicinal virtues. Among these the Cranberry, or Fenberry, is to be discovered in peat bogs, bearing solitary, terminal, bright red flowers, on straggling, wiry stems, of which the segments are bent back in a singular manner. Before the blossom expands the fruit stalk resembles the head and neck of a crane; the subacid fruit makes excellent tarts, and is signally antiscorbutic. This is the Oxycoccos palustris. Cranberries are also imported in barrels from Norway, and Russia; likewise a larger kind from America, Oxycoccos macrocarpus.
The Berberry, or Barberry, has already been told about; it is intensely, but agreeably, acid.
The Whortleberry, popularly called as to its fruit "whorts" (which ripen about the time of St. James' Feast, July 25th), is in its etymology corrupted from Myrtleberry by the initial M. having suffered a change into W. In the middle ages the Myrtleberry was used in medicine, and cookery.
The Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)-(and see "FRUITS")is an admirable astringent, and is treated of here explicitly among Fruits. Its fresh juice is antidotal to the bacillus of typhoid fever, as well as to some other kindred bacilli, generally killing these within twelve hours after reaching them within the intestines. Neither the acid gastric juice of the stomach, nor the alkaline contents of the bowels, will interfere with such germicidal action, which extends down to the lowest part of the alimentary canal. Likewise this fruit confers sure benefit against dysentery by its destructive power on bacilli. In Germany the berries are a favourite popular remedy for diarrhea, being used either dry, or in fruit wine, syrup, or vegetable extract. Bilberry jam is excellent against diarrhea, with putridity, and flatulence, from bacterial fermentation. This fruit, when stewed, is eaten cold by the Germans at the commencement of dinner in the place of soup. "Our last Thanksgivin' dinner we Ate at Granny's house, and she Had-just as she allus does- The bestest pies as ever wus.
Canned blackbury pie, an' luscious goose- Burry, squashin' full of juice; An' rosburry, an' likewise plum, Yes, an' cherry pie; yum! yum!
Peach, an' pumpkin too, you bet; Lawky, I can taste 'em yet.
Yes, an' custard pie, an' mince !
I aint ate no sich nice pies since !"
These various berries have induced some wag to string their terminal appellations together in an odd fashion : Equidem non pendo unius fragarii ribes, taxi baccæ simile: permittam tamen omnibus chiococcum te rubum. Te rubum idœum prorsus exstitisse: vaccinium autem, senior dic": "I don't care a straw-berry for a goose-berry like yew-berry, but I'll let folks(k)now-berry that you're a regular-ass-berry, and whort'llberry-senior say?" Recently "Dagonet," making a pilgrimage to Haworth, rendered famous by the Bronté family, came to a pastrycook's shop, over which was inscribed the inviting legend, "Funeral teas provided." He entered the shop, and found presiding therein a delightful Yorkshire housewife who was busy making parkins. He asked her for a Funeral Tea, whereat she smiled, and gave him some Bilberry tarts (which were a dream), and gossiped to him pleasantly of the Brontes, and showed him Branwell's chair, and told him all about "Funeral teas."