EVERY STEP IN CANNING: THE COLD-PACK METHOD TEXT

| |be placed in the pit. Cover lightly with soil and as the | |weather becomes colder add a little more soil until | |there is a layer 6 or 7 inches thick over the cabbage. | |Keep the ends of the pit partially open for ventilation | |until the weather becomes very cold. | | |25 heads. | | | |Late varieties of cabbage are the only ones | | | |fit for storage. It is advisable to dig a | | | |shallow ditch around the pit so that all | | | |surplus water can be carried off. | | | | Chickory or Endive |Store in a box or bed of moist sand in the cellar. Put roots |in an upright position with the sand coming just to their |tops. Water the sand occasionally. Sometimes a covering of |straw is added to blanch the tender growth of shoots, which |is the part used as food. | |Late in the fall lift the roots out and carefully trim | |off the leaves without injury to the heart. | | |5 doz. roots. | | | |Chickory or endive is grown the same as | | | |carrots or salsify. It is useful in the winter | | | |for it furnishes the needed green that is so | | | |scarce in winter. | | | | Beets |Must not be placed in too large piles in the cellar as they |are inclined to mold. Can also be buried in pits in open |ground. | |Can remain in the ground until very cool weather; then | |should be pulled, the tops cut off and then stored in | |the cellar. | | |1 bushel. | | | |Beets are not so much inclined to shrivel as | | | |carrots. | | | | Salsify or Vegetable Oyster |Pack roots in box with moist sand in cellar or as they are |not injured by remaining in the ground all winter they can be |left there. Enough for immediate use may be dug in the autumn |and the others dug as desired. | |When stored in the cellar after the salsify is pulled, | |trim off the tops and then stand them in an upright | |position with the sand even with the tops. | | |75 to 100 roots. | | | |Is injured by too much freezing and thawing, | | | |so should remain frozen. | | | | Parsnips |Can be stored just as salsify or be allowed to remain in the |ground until wanted. | |Those that are to be stored in the cellar can remain in | |in the garden until the weather is quite cool, then | |prepare and store like salsify. | | |1 bushel in the cellar and one in the garden. | | | |Parsnips are best kept frozen or fresh in the | | | |cellar as too much freezing and thawing | | | |destroys them. | | | | Turnips |Must be stored where temperature is low or sprouting will |result. Moderate freezing does no harm while in the storage |pit but they must not be disturbed while frozen. | |Pull; cut tops off and store in sand in cellars or | |caves, or in pits, or in tightly covered boxes or | |crocks. | | |1 to 3 bus. | | | |The object is to keep them cold and prevent | | | |evaporation. It is a good plan to store a | | | |portion in the cellar so as to be available | | | |during the time that those buried in the pit | | | |are "frozen in" and not so easily accessible. | | | | Onions |Require a cool dry place. Attic excellent. | |Before storing, cure them by exposing to the air for a | |few days in the shade. Dryness is absolutely essential. | |A well cured onion should be firm and not readily dented | |at the base of the tops by the tip of the thumb when | |held in the hand. | | |3 bushels. | | | |Onions are best for storage if topped about 1½ | | | |inches long. | | | | Cauliflower |Planted in shallow boxes of soil in light place in the |cellar. | |Must not be too mature. | | |Store as many as possible. | | | |If kept well watered they will mature for | | | |winter use. | | | | Brussels Sprouts |Planted in soil in cellar. | |Must not be too mature. | | |According to family tastes. | | | |Keep watered and will mature. | | | | Ground Cherries or Husk Tomatoes |May be stored for some weeks in the husk in their layers in a |dry place free from frost. | Kohl-rabi, Winter Radishes, Rutabagas |Best stored in sand in cellars, cares or pits. | |Must be kept cold to prevent evaporation. | | |According to the family tastes. | | | |Kohl-rabi must be tender when stored. | | | | Horse-radish |May be kept in the ground where grown all winter. Must be |kept frozen as thawing injures it. | Pumpkins |Best kept on shelves in a very dry place. Can be kept on |shelves in furnace room. | |Must be ripened and cured and free from bruises. | | |5 ordinary sized pumpkins. | | | |Need not be kept especially cold. | | | | Squashes |Susceptible to cold and moisture, so store in a dry place |where temperature will be between 50 and 60 degrees. | |Care must be taken that stem is not broken. | | |10 ordinary sized hubbard squashes. | | | |Whenever squashes or pumpkins in storage show | | | |signs of decay, the sound portion should be | | | |immediately canned. | | | | Tomatoes |Cool cellar or cave; can be wrapped in any absorbent paper |preferably without printing upon it, and laid upon shelves to |ripen. The paper absorbs the moisture given off by the |tomatoes and causes them to ripen uniformly. If cellar is dry |or well ventilated, tomatoes can be kept a month or six weeks |in this manner. | |May be kept until Christmas if vines with the green | |tomatoes hanging on them are pulled and hung in the | |cellar. Pull the vines before they are frosted. | | |All that you can put away. | | | |Most of the tomatoes that are put into storage | | | |will ripen and be most acceptable as soon as | | | |they color up. If these tomatoes, when cooked, | | | |are found to be very acid, the acidity may be | | | |overcome by using baking soda. | | | | Parsley |Transplant into flower pots late in the fall. | |Keep in windows where they will receive plenty of | |sunshine. | | Garlic |Should be thoroughly cured as are onions. | |Or it may be braided by the tops into strings which are | |hung up in dry places for curing and storing. | | Head Lettuce |Rooted in earth in a cellar or cave. | |Water occasionally. | | |All you have in the garden. | | | Dry beans and peas |Stored where protected from weevils. | |Should be fully ripened before shelling. Pick pods by | |hand as they ripen and spread pods to become thoroughly | |dry. May be shelled by spreading pods on a sheet and | |beating them with a stick. Can be cleaned by pouring | |them from a height of 4 or 5 ft. upon a sheet and | |allowing the wind to blow the particles of pod out of | |them as they fall. | | |As many as you can gather. | | | Apples |Must be kept in a dry, cool place and so stored as to be in |no danger of absorbing odors from vegetables stored nearby. |Apples absorb odors from potatoes, onions, turnips and other |strong vegetables. | |Sort apples carefully removing and using at once all | |fruit that is bruised and shows signs of decay. The best | |results are obtained by wrapping each apple in half a | |sheet of newspaper and storing in barrels, boxes, crates | |or bins. The wrapping prevents apples from touching and | |thus prevents decay. It also protects apples from odors | |of vegetables stored nearby. | | |As many barrels of apples as possible. Remember | | |that "An apple a day will keep the doctor away." | | | |The cellar or other storage place must be kept | | | |cool. 32° F. is ideal. Never allow temperature | | | |to go above 40° F. They can be stored | | | |unwrapped in barrels, boxes, crates, bins, | | | |etc., if proper attention is paid to sorting, | | | |to providing a cool place for storage, to | | | |occasional sorting during the winter and for | | | |the immediate removal of all decayed fruit. | | | |Even if you do not raise apples, but have a | | | |good storage place, meeting the requirements | | | |as regards temperature, you will find it | | | |advantageous to buy a winter's supply in the | | | |autumn, when prices are low. CHAPTER XIX HOW TO MARKET HOME CANNED PRODUCE You have some delicious jellies, jams, canned fruits and vegetables that you wish to sell and you do not know just how to go about it. There are at your disposal several means of selling: 1. Through advertising. 2. Through personal letters to desirable shops, delicatessens, boarding-houses, colleges, etc. 3. By direct salesmanship; that is, by making personal visits to the buyers, either homes or stores. 4. Through jobbers to whom you pay a commission on all sales. 5. Through coöperative selling. Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way for you to handle your problem is to employ the method so much used to-day and that is wayside advertising. Wayside advertising costs practically nothing and yet it pays. Autos are everywhere these days. You cannot take a country ride without seeing many signboards at the farm entrances advertising chickens, fresh eggs, vegetables, honey, apples and canned goods. I have a friend who drives 50 miles every fall for her honey. She first found it by seeing the sign in front of the farm and now she returns year after year because she thinks no other honey is just like it. She would never have discovered it if that farm woman had not been clever enough to think of advertising her goods in this cheap way. My friend told all her other "auto" friends, so the country woman has a splendid outlet for her product now. If you live on a good road that is patronized at all by autoists you ought to get your signboard up at once. We often pass a farm where the sign "Fresh Home-Made Candy" always tempts us to stop and buy. What autoist could resist that sign? And here miles from town this clever woman is carrying on a profitable side trade, which is netting her a nice little yearly income. Her candy is good; we go often and so do many others. She has turned her profession into a paying proposition. She could send her candy away by parcel post or by some other means, but she would not be so far ahead as she is now. In addition to your wayside advertising you could advertise in papers, magazines, etc. Many producers believe strongly in advertising in daily and weekly papers. You can quickly find out whether this kind of advertising pays. Give it a trial at least. After you have spent ten or fifteen dollars in advertising you ought to know whether it pays. Use one or two of the city papers near you, taking the publisher's advice as to the best day of the week on which to run the advertisement, the size and the position of the "ad." The first cost of getting your customers may seem high, but with good products you could soon build up a list of people to whom sales can be made year after year. This form of advertising has many advantages. If your advertising copy is clever and you have some novelty to offer, you ought to receive many orders. If orders come, you get the full retail price, the shipping charges are paid by the customer, and cash comes with every order. And it means, if your customers are pleased, that you have permanent customers. The initial cost is great and there is a risk, but remember "it pays to advertise." There are millions of city women who never can a jar of fruit or put up a single glass of preserves or jelly who will be glad to have you send your goods direct to them by parcel post. But you must get in touch with these women either through wayside advertising, magazine and paper advertising or by direct salesmanship, although very few women have the time for personal calls. Considerable business can be done by letter writing to stores, restaurants and boarding-houses in distant cities. It may be impossible for you to go personally, in which case letters often bring the desired results. Make your letters business-like and typewrite them. Do not be discouraged if you do not get many replies at first as there are at least fifty per cent who pay no attention to such letters. But this form of advertising usually pays. Another method followed by many home canners is that of marketing direct to the retail grocers, care being taken, of course, to protect these grocers by not selling to more than one member in a community. One of the great advantages, of this direct salesmanship is that little selling effort is required on your part after the first arrangements have been made. The nearby market plan is greatly to be recommended because you can keep in touch with your selling concern, build up a line of desirable goods and promote its sale by advertising. Of course you can get more money for your goods if you have time and the opportunity to sell _direct to_ the consumers. You will of necessity have to sell cheaper to the grocers because they too must make their profit. Marketing direct to the consumer has a special appeal to many people. Where time is available and the community accustomed to purchasing in this manner, this method offers great possibilities. The profits are of course higher but the results more uncertain, for it is somewhat difficult to gauge the demands of the public, and the canner must assume the risk ordinarily taken by the merchant. It takes time and patience to develop a list of customers but if you have time in the winter to do this you will find it will pay you well. If you can get customers who are willing to pay good prices for quality, scrupulous cleanliness and the homemade flavor, you will get a larger gross return than if you sold through merchants, but if your time is valuable it would scarcely pay you to take individual orders and deliver goods. There is still another way and that is to market your home-canned products in large lots to jobbers, but if this plan is to be pursued successfully there must be a reasonably large pack and wholesale rates. This method produces more uniform profits year by year, for after a reputation is established the home-canner would not experience great difficulty in thus disposing of her entire output by contract, providing the quality was high and the price demands not excessive. But the greatest and best way of all to find a profitable market for your things is to coöperate with other canners in your own neighborhood and find a market for quantity as well as quality. Delicatessens, club houses, tea shops, college dormitories, restaurants and hotels, all pay good prices for fine quality. No big buyer will bother to purchase one or two dozen of this or that. He wants dozens of things. One of the very best profitable ways to sell with little trouble is through quantities. Get all the women in your community to bring together cans of fruit and preserves, etc., to some marketing place. Find out how many jars of currant jelly you have, how many cans of peas and corn, how many of cherries, etc., and then notify your buyer or prospective buyer. Coöperative selling has been undertaken and found profitable. In some cases, especially in localities frequented by the summer boarder or the automobile tourist, sales are made direct to customers who come to the salesrooms of the organizations or to their special sales; in other cases goods are sent by parcel post and other means. The women in the community can hire or beg a room where all the women of the community can sell their products for individual profit. This room should be located on the direct automobile road in order to attract tourists and automobile parties. An annual membership fee of from 50 cents to $1 generally is required for these organizations, and a charge of from 10 to 15 per cent of the selling price usually is made to cover the cost of selling. In a few instances the managing board has been able to secure an efficient person to take charge of the enterprise for a specified percentage on the sales. Wholesale grocery concerns are interested in big things--orders can be placed with them. Soda fountains in towns and cities are excellent customers for the freshest eggs they can get. They are encroaching more and more on the trade of the restaurants and lunch rooms. Many serve light luncheons and would be interested in good butter, preserves and jams. When you get a list of names and addresses write to several dozen places, tell what your organization has in the way of guaranteed eggs, homemade products and what kind of service you could offer in the way of regular shipments. When orders come it is an easy matter to look up at your local bank the responsibility of any customer, so there is little risk. Or cash can be insisted upon with every order, although large concerns prefer to pay after receipt of goods and bill. Each woman in this coöperative organization must keep her goods up to a certain standard, for an inferior lot of goods sent to a large firm might ruin a reputation. Three things govern the sale of canned products--appearances, quality and price. So many things enter into consideration of prices obtainable that it is difficult to set a standard which will be applicable to different sections. The quality of the pack, its neatness, the method of marketing and many other matters must be considered in deciding this all-important point. As a general proposition, however, if the products are uniformly high grade, prices may be obtained which are somewhat in excess of factory-made products marketed in the same manner. Like any other new industry, the selling should be developed slowly in order to minimize the possibility of loss and to assure stable business. One should study the situation carefully both from the manufacturing and marketing standpoints. Plan the season's campaign before taking up the work, and do not let the enthusiasm of the beginner interfere with good business judgment. The selling when rightly managed can be made a successful business or it can be turned into a liability through careless, unbusinesslike methods and insufficient or unwise planning. Properly handled it will pay well for the investment of time and money, and offer opportunity for the disposal of surplus home-canned, home-grown, homemade and home-prepared products of all kinds. LIVING UP TO CONTRACTS Care must be taken not to contract for more than can be delivered. This would be bad business, and business principles must govern in selling home products just as in other enterprises if one is to be increasingly successful from year to year. Occasionally a quantity of fruit which will not meet the rigid requirements of the canning business can be turned into preserves, jellies or fruit juices. Preserves and jellies should be marketed in glass, and fruit juices in bottles, although some manufacturers are now marketing some of these products in fiber cups. This line of