DRIED VEGETABLES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11818, 16 November 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

DRIED VEGETABLES.

A LESSON FROM GERMANY.

< Tommy ' jn South" Africa' is being fed on French and German dried vegetables — where da „the British farmer ? By millions of pounds weight the thrifty German farmer in the Rhine valley and the patient peasant in France have grown the succulent carrot, the crisp kale, the fragrant onion, the penetrating )eek, and the .wholesome haricot bean, in order that Tommy might flavour his meat in the cooking-pot and bless the man that first invented dried vegetable rations. -

In a City sample-room the other day a representative of a London paper saw a pretty and .appetising array of vegetables grown in the Rhine valley 1 dried in a hot air appratus, and squeezed, some of thorn, into flat, hard cakes for soldiers' ration. , 'We guarantee them for two years said a member of the importing firm. 'They, weig"h next' to nothing, pack very small/ and keep wejl in any, climate. English people are just waking ' up to the value and importance of the dried vegetable. They have had it served to them for a long tiuw io Julientie soup, but they do npt know that cabbage, sliced celery, carrotß, sliced and chip potatoes can be bought iv this way, and when served wiil not be distinguishable from freshbought vegetables." A wholesale price list of dried vegetables makes interesting reading, remembering that 2241 b of fresh vegetables can be reduced to 151 bor 161 bof dried. Mixed vegetables are quoted at 55s per cwt ; onions at 90a ; carrots at 60s ; spinach at 172s ; brnssels sprouts a* high as 2285, and potatoes sliced as low as 36s per hundredweight. li, is i curious fact that while the War Office is sending millions of pounds of dried vegetables to Sooth Africa because it is cheap, light, and nourishing, the Admiralty obstinately refuse* to recognise it as a food for sailors. There can be no doubt (hat it would improve the sailor's fare and make service' in Navy more popular.