Ls — Before the Beginning whether of . watermelons by the light of a crescent moon, June apples scarce overripe and yet o’er the fence, of cheer up cherries or the juicy, sugary California prune, these few remarks are dedicated. We hope you may come out to California, and while basking beneath our vine and fig tree, eat of our seedless grapes and munch our California-Smyrna figs from over- head. To E. J. Wickson, author of “Cali- fornia Fruits,” Elwood Cooper, Chas. H. Allen, Volney Rattan, H. P. Stabler, W. P. Lyon, Philo Hersey, A: Block; W. R. Radcliff, Mrs. B. R. Follett, Mrs. K. M.. Tileston,, Mrs: -S:.. Bo. Hankins: Mrs. A. E. Gibson, Mrs. C. Goodwin, W. W. W., Housekeeper, Mrs. Weisen- danger, Mrs. H. A. Lee, Miss Emma Riehl, Mrs. EK. C. Hatch, Miss Mabel Follett, Mrs. C; P> Taft, Mrs. be Greenleaf, Miss Cooper, Mrs. Alice Rich- ardson and other authorities, thanks are tendered for ideas taken and_ recipes submitted. r \O lovers of good fruit everywhere, KAT CALIFORNIA FRUIT 1904 SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO fruit. Your home cook-book probably has less knowledge upon the subject than you. The writer scanned three standard cook-books yesterday—not one had one intelligent recipe for simple prep- aration of California fruit, such as apricots, peaches and prunes. You would have had better health. Maybe your health was good anyway; it’s robust health that won’t invite a little improvement. Ask your doctor if a pound and a half a day of California fruit will improve your health. If he says, yes, he is wise; if he says no—hardly think it possible—investigate further. You may need a new doctor. Take this home with you; even if you never buy California fruit, a neighbor might send over some when he returns the lawn mower, or the rich aunt in California make you a Christmas present. Then in the following pages you will find (1), Why California fruits are the best; (2), The California fruits as nutritious health foods, and (3), The different California fruits with simple recipes for table preparation. CHAPTER AL Why California Fruits Are Best The best climate is essential in the production of the best fruit. Do not permit wiseacres who would plant persimmons in a snowdrift to teach you otherwise. The man who “must have frost in his fruit” may as well eat frozen fruit as to expect a frost stunted tree to bring forth perfect fruit. The scientist Boussingault says that climate in the production of fruit is essentially important in no less than six phases; a different degree of temperature is required for (1) germination, (2) chemical changes, (3) flowering, (4) devel- opment of seeds, (5) elaboration of saccharine 4 juices, (6) development of aroma or bouquet, each step requiring more heat than its predecessor. The long California summer gives to each change its due consideration, and ripens the whole into a harvest fit for consumption on high Olympus—or even in New York. In the month following the formation of seeds in fruit, the mean temperature should not be below 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (Boussingault). This is not a matter of guess work, but of experiment and observation. The germinating time, the chemical change period, the blossom season, the seed growth, the sugar making, the creation of aroma; each must be protected by a California climate of sufficient length and above a certain minimum of temper- ature to create perfection. Nowhere in the world does the climate so nearly meet these ideal requirements as in California. But that is not alone the reason why Cali- fornia fruits are best. Count de Gasparin points out that not alone sufficient heat but abundance of continuous sunshine is a requisite of perfection. Without light there is no fructification. You might plant a tree in your cellar and try raising fruit by steam heat if you doubt this. Therefore, the deliciousness of California fruit is largely because of the State’s abundance of clear sunshine. The average number of cloudy days, according to the United States Weather Bureau, is in the principal cities of the East from April to September, four times the number in the fruit centers of California. When you eat California fruit you eat sunshine fruit. ‘Please, Mr. Waiter, a pound of sunshine for dessert.” Nor is this all. There is a third reason, and this is the one that makes summer life in California as agreeable to humanity as it is to fruit—the absence of humidity. In the East, the winter is the period of low 5 humidity, if there be such a period, and the summer that of high humidity. In California, vice versa. Your clothes stick to you in the Eastern summer, and you don’t feel like sticking to anything. Humid summer weather is not good for fruit. In California we have no such summer weather. Professor Tyndall said that during periods of high humidity, clouds of vapor act as a screen to the earth—and thereby lessen the chemical efiects of the sun in fruit-ripening. On your Eastern humid days, no matter how bright the sun to your eye, the water vapor in the air absorbs the sun’s rays and retards the ripening of fruit. We have no such days in California. Our fruit ripens thoroughly. The clear, brilliant sunshine of California; not a scorching heat, for neither man, nor beast, nor plant wilts under it, the long weeks of cloud- less weather each day molding the fruit toward perfection in some detail; with such climatic environment do you wonder that California fruit is something apart by itself, not to be compared with fruit of the same names, raised elsewhere? If you bought an apple you would inquire if it were a Jonathan or a wild crab—if a nut, whether a pig nut or hickory nut—in buying fruit ask if it be California fruit or otherwise. All this may seem farfetched to you. To us of California it is an old story, for our main- tenance depends upon an _ intelligent under- standing and application of climatic conditions. Our different varieties of fruits demand different variations of our sunshiny climate and our fertile soil. Of the wonderful variety of California soils that grow these fruits, little may be said here. To the orchardist a thorough knowledge of them is most valuable, for upon that knowledge depends the distribution and planting of trees. 6 To the consumer the fruits speak for themselves. They seem to have the lightness and vitality of the soil, the aroma and bouquet of magic sun- shine and the juiciness and sugar of the fair land of romance whence one would not expect insipidity nor acridity. CHAPTER III As Nutritious Health Foods Dr. Kellogg, the scientist who has been watch- ing the digestion of the people, says in Good Health that he has experimented with 16,000 cases of stomach germs causing indigestion. He discovered first that none of these germs could be made to grow in fruit juice, and, second, that fruit juice would not support germ life in any case. In extracts of grains they grew, though not vigorously; in beef tea, the most deadly flourished. In France extensive experiments have shown appendicitis to exist among the meat eaters; the classes using fruits largely are exempt. Our present day life with its excess of meat eating among certain classes promotes appendicitis, indigestion and various germ diseases of the digestive apparatus. To counteract this germ culture, one should eat plentifully of California fruits—say a pound and a half a day. But California fruits are not only disease preventives and appetizing side dishes. They are important foods which are needed to make one physically and nervously strong. Any scientific work dealing with food will tell you that fruit and nuts contain large quantities of sugar and fats, that acid fruits are needed every day in the year, and that the nearest to a substitute for regular physical exercise is a plentiful fruit diet. There is no better way in which to imbibe a goodly amount of absolutely pwre water than ‘ to eat plenty of California fruit. Any physician can tell you of the merits of the fruit in giving strength and tone to the digestive organs. The food values of the different fruits will be dealt with in connection with the recipes given in the following chapter. If you follow these recipes in the very simple suggestions offered for the preparation of the fruit, and use the fruits liberally, you will become a more enthusiastic spokesman in behalf of California fruits as health food products than the writer is herein. CHAPTER IV Preparation for the Table The prune is the best known and most widely marketed of California deciduous fruits. The California prune is of a class of its own and has absorbed the larger part of the European market in competition with the longer known prune of Southern Europe. This California prune is noth- ing more nor less than a very nutritious, sugary and delicious plum. In its preparation for the table the aim should be to restore it as nearly as possible to its ripe condition on the tree. The California prune is a wonderful food fruit. As you buy it in the market, you pay for one third the water that you do in purchasing beef- steak, eggs or potatoes. In amount of carbo- hydrates, starches and sugars the prune surpasses all the other foods. The prune more nearly approaches the ideal human food than any other article of diet. But, after all, we do not view food from a health point of view altogether. It must be appetizing and make the mouth water if it is to be popular. And there is no more delicious, appetizing a dish than six or eight California prunes, properly prepared. 8 There is everything in the selection and prep- aration of prunes. Skilful preparation will place at your plate almost the same luscious, purple fruit that hangs from the tree in August. Prunes are classified as to size by the number to the pound. You will observe stamped on the boxes, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90, 90-100, these numbers indicating that between thirty and forty make a pound, and so on. As a rule the grocer should ask you a half cent a pound more for forty-fiftys than for fifty-sixtys, and a half cent more for fifty-sixtys than for sixty-seventys, though the relative values vary, depending on supplies. The larger prune is more valuable, because the proportion of pit and skin is less. Prunes that run over one hundred and ten to the pound are too small to be very edible. The middle sizes are best liked. Now, go to the grocer and ask him for five pounds of California prunes out of one of his twenty-five or fifty-pound boxes, and for your own satisfaction observe the size stencilled on the box—*‘50-60” or the lke. Wash the prunes carefully. They are packed in California with cleanliness and care, but no harm is done in rinsing them well. They may have sugared; that is the fruit sugar may have exuded through the skin and given them a white appearance. No harm is done. Then, soak the prunes. You have bought prunes without water, but to get them back to their fresh state their present dry weight must be nearly doubled by absorption of water. They lost that in curing. Ten or twelve hours of soaking in cold water will be enough, or less in tepid water. Under no circumstances soak them ‘till the skins begin to break. When soaking begins add sugar as desired. The California prunes are sweet; but sugar put to soak with them is changed during the association to fruit 9 sugar. The prunes, while not materially sweeter to the taste, are richer in flavor. Do not add sugar to prunes after cooking; you injure the flavor. Now, your prunes are palatable just as they are after soaking. A great many are eaten so, and those who acquire this “prune habit” usually abide with it. But we will presume you want your prunes cooked a little. Keep them in the water in which they were soaked and set them to simmer in a broad pan so that the prunes shall not be more than three inches deep. The water should hardly cover them, but should show among the surface prunes. Then let *em simmer. Do not boil prunes; that is what spoils prunes, according to most epicures. Simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer. Keep the lid on; shake gently now and then; don’t interfere with a spoon. If the water is above 180 degrees Fahrenheit, it is too hot. When the skins of the prunes are tender (take one up in a spoon and see if the skin breaks easily between thumb and finger), the prunes are done. Pour off the liquor and boil it down to a syrup by itself if desired. Use as much as you wish of it with the prunes. Serve the prunes about eight large ones or twelve small ones to a dish with a tablespoonful or more of cream, and you have one of the most delicious dishes in existence. Greatest of breakfast foods is the prune. With or without cereals it is an appetizing, satisfying food. The writer lives in the Santa Clara Valley where fresh fruit is obtainable in abundance cheaply at all times of the year. Yet rarely he goes without prunes for breakfast; for in prunes, properly prepared, he finds fresh fruit, good food, and good health. 10 A little claret or sauterne poured over prunes just as cooking is finished adds a flavor liked by many. One word about how to treat prunes. Don’t ‘suppose because the prune keeps better than any other cooked food that it will remain pala- table if abused. Cook not too many at a time; if you have them on the table constantly as you should, you should not in slovenly style cook a month’s supply at a time. You would not think of baking bread or cooking meat so. Dr: Hanson, of Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, who has made a study of prunes, says: “Nutritious value, pound of prunes equals a gallon of milk; greater than pound of bread and as_ cheap. Bread and prunes are as economical a diet as bread alone and far more healthful. Fresh meat, fish, milk or eggs, are not even approximately as valuable food as prunes and are much more expensive propor- tionately.” In a lunch for school or the factory you may substitute stewed or steamed prunes for part of the bread, and, pound for pound, you will be at no greater expense. There is no fruit more healthful. A dish of prunes a half hour before retiring and a dish at breakfast, and stomach ills will disappear. As a tonic and regulator of the digestive and assimilative apparatus of the human body, the modest California prune without an M.D. to its name, has unequalled value. When you are inclined to take somebody’s bitters or sarsaparilla, eat prunes; when some patent medicine war- ranted to clear your mind or your stomach or your blood, appeals to you—why, eat more prunes. Cheaper, more efficacious, much more pleasant to take, the California prune is not only Greatest of Breakfast Foods but as a health conserver is better than all the patent medicines you can 11 pour from a bottle—even though a weighty name be blown thereon. Some recipes are given herein. The good housewife will adapt the prune when she finds its value to puddings, pies and cakes to suit her fancy. Upon a foundation of steamed or stewed prunes are the more fancy edibles erected. Of the California prunes, ninety per cent are the so-called French variety, coming hence from France. Dark skinned, clear meated, sweet prunes, they have no superiors. The Imperial and Sugar prunes, averaging larger in size, are somewhat sweeter. The Rote de Sargent type, the German, Fallenbey, etc., while rich in sugar have a slight acidity, liked by many. The Silver prune is the only light prune, a very large amber- colored fruit like the egg plum. The latter is sour and without the nutrition of the Silver prune; do not accept as a substitute. CHAPTER V Worth While Recipes—Prunes STEWED PRUNES—Wash the prunes well, put in a kettle, just cover with cold. water and let stand all night. In morning put on the stove in the same water. Boil until tender. Don’t stir or mash them. Set back on the stove where they will simmer until the juice is a thick syrup and very little of it. Eat when cold with cream. STEWED WITH JACKETS Orr—Wash thoroughly. Put in a fruit kettle; cover with cold water. Do not have the fire too brisk, as at no time must the prunes boil. Let them come slowly to the scalding point and scald for ten or fifteen minutes. Remove from the stove, pour off the hot water and cover with cold water so that the prunes may be easily hhandled. Slip the skins off and replace prunes in the kettle. 12 Cover with water and simmer slowly thirty or forty minutes. Use no sugar. STEWED PRUNES WITH ORANGE—Soak three quarts of prunes over night in enough water to cover them. Add one cup of sugar and a sliced orange or lemon. Cover with water and stew two hours. Prunes cooked in this way have a rich color and flavor. STEAMED Prunes—Wash the prunes two or three times in warm water. Put them into a stew-pan with half a cup of water. Cover closely and let them steam till the water is absorbed. Do not stir or break the fruit. When cool place in a glass dish and grate a lemon peel over them, sprinkle with sugar and cover with whipped cream. STEAMED PruNES—Wash thoroughly; steam until the fruit is swollen to its original size and is tender. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and squeeze lemon juice over them. BoILepD PRuNES—Wash carefully. Put to boil with plenty of water, adding sliced lemon to suit. Cook until tender, adding a little sugar at finish. Serve in their own syrup cold. This “fast cook- ing” recipe does not conform to the conventions in cooking prunes, but finds favor with many. PrRuNES WitH WHIPPED CREAM—Cook in usual manner. Cut in two, remove pit, serve cold with whipped cream as dessert.