Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 181, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1918 — COMMUNITY WAR KITCHENS LIKED [ARTICLE]

COMMUNITY WAR KITCHENS LIKED

Spring Up Around Country Like Mushrooms to Meet Sudden Need for Food. AID IN CONSERVATION PUNS Women Meet in Groups to Can and Dry and Learn Best Methods of Saving —Home Demonstration Agents Supervise. War emergency kitchens of all sorts and descriptions have sprung up over the country like mushrooms to meet the sudden need for community food centers. They are places where definite information and instruction may be given to help women in their conservation problems, and where canning, drying and war cooking may be demonstrated and put into practice. The canning kitchen is the most common of the new community enterprises. Within a year it has passed the experimental stage and has become an established institution. Reports from‘sl kitchens in widely scattered sections of the United~States record the saving of 205,527 quarts of fruits sind vegetables in 1917. The kitchens have been organized and financed in various ways. Expenses have been taken care of by school boards, boards of trade, business men’s associations, local committees of the council of national defense, loans from banks or, from Individuals, gifts from individuals and membership . fees. Some of the kitchens are mainly educational, and to them the woman brings her own materials to can or dry under supervision. A few take care of surplus or donated products only. Another type combines both phases of the work, canning donated surplus as well as giving instruction and helping individuals. The most complete type, however, is the all-the-year kitchen — a real community center —which combines with the other features the sale of cooked foods and an exchange for the sale of home-made products. Work In Grange Kitchen. A Grange kitchen housed one ce"ning center in a small New York village last summer. The equipment, which cost less than SIOO, included a drier, a sterilizer, an oil stove, a tin charconi stove and capping and tipping irons. The whole community cooperated in making the center a success—a local firm allowed wholesale prices on tin cans, grocers donated surplus perishable products and the village children gathered much of the produce. During the rush season, peas and benns were sent to elderly Women who could not leave home. They prepared the vegetables for canning and were glad to be able to give their services in tills way. City community canneries have* handled large quantities of products from markets arid school gardens. In Salt Lake City the cannery was placed in the market house. This made it possible for women to buy their fruit and vegetables in the market and can them at the center while still perfectly fresh. - , s A municipal kitchen was established in New’ Orleans, La., last August, where groups of housekeepers, bakers, hotel men and grocerymen made experiments in substitute breads and discussed methods of food conservation. From this idea war kitchens have been equipped in 78 of the southern cities, and women of small towns and county seats reading of the work being carried oh in these centers are equipping kitchens in court houses, school houses and various public buildings. In Arkansas apd Mississippi home-demonstration kitchens are at work in more than half the counties in each state.

While drying was something of an experiment last year, several community drying plants were established and this summer finds this branch enlarged. Many of the canning kitchens which had no < drying facilities before have installed driers, and it is expected thpt the returns in dried products will show a large increase over those of last summer. \ ' J;. .. fegs Home-demonstration agents and leaders in boys’ and girls’ club work of the United States department of agriculture^and the state agricultural colleges have been active in the work of these kitchens, in many cases supervising the enterprises and taking charge of the demonstrations. Appeal to Foreign-Bom. Several kitchens for cooked food were started in cities last winter by urban home-demonstration agents. Most of them are located in the poorer sections, where they reach a large number of foreign-born people. Soup and simple-cooked foods'are supplied at a nominal charge, to be eaten in the kitchen or carried home. Recipes of the dishes are distributed at the same time. Agents find this an unusually effective way of demonstrating to for-eign-born residents. Milk stations are run in connection with some of the kitchens, and bottled milk- is sold at cost. • With a more complete mobilization of women for food production and food preservation the demands for community kitchens have increased proportionately and new centers are being established continually, many under the expert direction of home-demon-stration agents. In addition to the actual saving of food, the kitchens keep the conservation movement constantly before the public ip a constructive way and relieve pressure of home work at a busy season. They provide trained supervision In the purchasing and preparation of food and demonstrate the newest methods and the advantages of efficient equipment. And best of all, they promote sociability, democracy and good fellowship and add new impetus to t the cooperative life of the community. j

Apple Butter With Grape Juice. If a grape flavor is desired in apple bntter it may be obtained by the use of grape juice. To each gallon of peeled and sliced apples, cooked into sauce I and strained, one pint of grape juice, one cupful of brown sugar, and onequarter of a teaspoonful of salt should be added. These should cook slowly and be stirred often for two hours or until of the desired thickness, then stir in one teaspoonful of cinnamon anti pack hot in hot containers and sterilise as directed for other apple butter.

Using Preserved Eggs.

Fresh. Clean eggs, property preserved, can be used satisfactorily for all purposes in cooking, and for the table. . When an egg preserved in water glass is to be .boiled, a small holo should be made ’in the shell with a pin at the large end before placing it in the water. . > 0