BRITISH EMPIRE PRODUCTS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19928, 15 May 1930, Page 2

BRITISH EMPIRE PRODUCTS.

NEW ZEALAND HONEY. EFFECT OF ORGANISED EFFORT I.?! fraou oua own coekkspondent.) LONDON, April 4. For the third of her series of lectures on British Empire foods, Mrs A. J. Hornibrook (nee Ettie A. Bout) took as her subject, "Fruit, Spices, Sugars." The general objects of the series were: (1) To spread a knowledge of the important part played by food cultivation in the maintenance and development of the British Empire; (2) to show how much can be done by the private citizen, especially by the women in the kitchen, to stimulate the consumption of the foods so produced. Healthful Effect of Spices. Spices, said Mrs Hornibrook, are of far more importance than many people realise. It is very curious that Great Britain should have taken so much trouble to acquire and retain the principal spice-growing lands in the world, and yet fail to appreciate the value of spices in culinary art. The practice of using herbs, spices, and condiments with the energy or starch foods is world-wide among native races, and the comparative neglect of apices in modern civilised cooking is one of the causes of digestive troubles. Vitamins may be described as accessory nutritive factors; spices as accessory digestive factors. Spices are said to be stimulant, and they are used in medicine to stimulate digestion and evacuation. Many of them are valuable as carminatives—perhaps the modern carminatives are really the "charms" of olden days. A pinch of this and a piece of that may have served to charm away the illhumours of the body. Races which use spices freely and wisely do not appear to need the continual whipping of their nagging energies by more or less unwholesome forms of alcohol. English beer is still made in the ancient way and is a malted beverage at once wholesome and useful. The same cannot possibly be said of the many chemical decoctions sold under the popular name of "beer." Cider, as usually made in Devonshire, is a health beverage of the highest value, and some ciders are non-alcoholic. When spiced they become doubly valuable. The Ginger Apple Wine or Ginger Cider is doubly valuable because ginger is known to be a useful stimulant and carminative; and the clove, which is always associated with apple, is the most valuable intestinal antiseptic mankind has ever possessed. Some Uncommon Suggestions. As to how to use spices in the ordinary way, the following hints may be useful: — 1. When using the various dried fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, pears, and apricots, a pinch of suitable spice may be added—cinnamon goes well with peaches, mace with nectarines, clove with pears, and pimento with apricot. When making marmalade tarts a pinch of mace to the marmalade is a great improvement. 2. Spices are also good with cooked English vegetables—a pinch of nutmeg is good with cabbage, also with spinach: cinnamon goes well with spinach. . . 3. Mixed spices are also good witn comparatively all vegetables, if used in minute quantities. 4. Mixed spices or savouries are good tff use with soups—especially with Suffolk Soup. New Zealand Honey. Coming to honey, the lecturer said it was gratifying to see the splendid position occupied by New Zealand -a position she owes to sheer determina- • tion in organised effort. In 1929 the imports of New Zealand honey into the United Kingdom were valued at £77.848, and those from the United States at £49,468. New Zealand in 1928 sent the major portion of the total imports of British Empire honey and came fairly close to sending, a

quantity equal in value to the whole of the foreign honey imports. Woman's Power. Finally, Mrs Hornibrook again urged upon women the fact that they hold the balance of power in regard to Empire! cultivation. "If the Empire is not more thoroughly and profitably cultivated than is the case at present," she said, "it cannot survive; but if the Empire is cultivated, and the products are''assembled in these closely populated islands of Great Britain, and still they are not used in preference to.foreign foods, but rather the growing food-needs of the community are catered for. more and more by the foreigner, then not only are we imposing definite losses on our overseas cultivators, but we are establishing their foreign competitors; if these competitors are allowed permanently to drain the economic life-blood of England, the fault is not theirs—it is ours. Why do we let them do it? Only because we have not yet realised the seriousness involved in foreign food production. Once that realisation enters the minds of our men, and above all, of our women, then I am convinced there will be no further doubts as to giving preference to British products; that will be done instinctively as a matter of honour and loyalty to our own folk."

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