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Show Matured Spring Tonics from Field and Garden THE new green vegetables, now so plentiful by a happy stroke of nature, are not only nutritious, nutri-tious, but also contain medicinal properties so much needed at this time of the year. All Spring greens might well he called veritable ' house-cleaners" of the human system. The cellulose, of waste, in vegetable foods encourages the peristaltic motion of the stomach and lower intestines: hence vegetable eaters are very rarely troubled with constipation con-stipation or torpid livers. During May and June an excellent array of Spring products is to be had not only by city inhabitants who patronize the markets, but by those living in the rural districts as well. Most of the latter depend entirely upon their home-raised products and upon wild edible edi-ble greens. Fortunately, too, we are realizing more and more every day the superior advantage of getting our medicine medi-cine from the markets rather than from the doctors: for nature, after all. dispenses the best tonic, and certainly that most pleasant to take. Nowadays the careful mother and housewife knows her dietetics too well to have to administer the time-honored time-honored bitter dose to a protesting family. Instead she buys spinach, asparagus, rhubarb, dandelion. Spring onions, etc., the food value of which seems designed especially to. take away that tired, droopy feeling. She prepares them tastily and the unsuspecting unsuspect-ing family takes the dose with a relish. Since not only the succulent cultivated vegetables, but many edible wild weeds unfamiliar to the majority ma-jority of housekeepers are plentiful now, they should constitute a large portion of the daily menu. In the Spring category of those particularly rich in mineral properties and of high medicinal value are dandelion, both wild and cultivated: rhubarb, poke shoots, asparagus, as-paragus, lettuce, water cress, scallions, beet tops, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, sour dock, sorrel, lamb's quarters, quar-ters, purslane and horse radish. Green vegetables, such as asparagus, spinach and dandelions, lend themselves easily to the combinations combina-tions of milk in the cream soups. These soups are nitrogenous, easy of digestion, and with whole wheat bread and butter form an admirable luncheon or supper sup-per dish for children. Even a tahlespoonful of greens left over will make a delicious cream soup. In washing and prepjring greens for cooking it is well to remember that if they are thrown into salted water after washing it will thoroughly rid them of any insect life which might otherwise go unnoticed. Asparagus and all delicately flavored vegetables should be cooked in very little water, just enough to cover,-bui dandelion and strong flavored vegetables require a generous quantity. All greens should be cooKed with the cover partly off. This gives them better color and a more delicious flavor. The average housekeeper is careless as to the time of cooking vegetables, yet a vegetable is as much injured by too much or too little cooking as is a loaf of bread or cake. The water should be kept boiling constantly until vegetables are done. To let it stop impairs the flavor. in cooking greens a ham bone or bacon drippings which have been saved from time to time will be found to supply a flavor that cannot be obtained in any other way. Onions used discreetly are a tasty addition to any greens used in salad form. When shredded and mixed with mayonnaise they make a palatable dressing and are very wholesome. Lettuce, since it contains alkalies, requires an acid condimpnt. Dandelions form one of the most wholesome whole-some greens, containing as they do "taraxacum." which acts on the liver. Dandelion roots are cut into slices, dried and used medicinally by many instead of procuring their supply from the pharmacist as most city folk do. Copyright, 1916, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved. |