DRIED VEGETABLES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 228, 2 August 1879, Page 2

DRIED VEGETABLES.

We take the following from the Journal of Horticulture, as a matter of general interest to all who may desire to have a supply of fresh vegetables out of season without resorting to the use of those which are preserved by, in many.instances, objectionable and unwholesome processes:— We'have recently tested some dried vegetables, which have been submitted tons by Mr Theodore Alkcmade, 3 Melrose Terrace, Stamford Road. Tottenham, who is now on a visit to this country from Nordwk, Holland. The vegetables have been dried by a process which has been adopted by the Alkemade family upwards of a century, and they are in great repute on the Continent. During the drying process, " nothing," says the proprietor, " has been added to the vegetables, and nothing except water taken from them; and when cooked they assume their normal color, and, to a very large extent, their flavor." This we have found true. The vegetables we have tried are scarlet runners, cut ready for cooking; dwarf •kidney beans uncut, and broad beans, small seeds of the Mazngan type. In appearance the dried vegetables are uninviting, being small, hard, and shrivelled, but after being soaked in water for aix hourtheir change is marvellous, their colos returning and their bulk increasing in a very marked manner. When cooked we were surprised by their excellence. While not being equal to freshly gathered vegetables, they approach them far more closely than we expected, and sufficiently so to be acceptable as a change when fresh vegetables of the same kinds are not, obtainable. The vegetables, such as the cutting of scarlet runners, have hitherto' been performed by the hand, a necessarily tedious and comparatively expensive process, but machinery is now projected for their preparation, which will no doubt reduce the cost. Although as vegetables out of season they are not particularly costly now, yet if they can be cheapened they will almost certainly be in large demand for consumption both on land and sea. It may be noted that dwarf kidney beans, popularly termed French beans, are not usually sliced on the Continent; but varieties such as the Princess are grown, and the pods are cooked whole after the beans are formed in them. The dried specimens are of this kind, and on that account are not, we think, likely to be popular in England.