Rye and Flaxmeal Crackers

More crackers! They really are ridiculously easy to make, and much cheaper than any decent commercial cracker, where you are mostly paying for the shipping of air (they're fragile, after all) and advertising. Also, you know there's no trans fats.


36 to 42 crackers
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time

1 1/2 cups whole rye flour
1/2 cup flax meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
1/2 cup filtered water

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut parchment paper to fit 2 large baking trays.

Put the flour, flax meal and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir in the oil and water. Mix well. You will likely need to use your hands at the end. Form the dough into a smooth ball, and cut it in half.

Roll out each half of the dough on one of the pieces of parchment paper. The dough should be as evenly and thinly rolled out as you can get it. Cut the rolled-out dough into crackers with a pizza cutter, and prick them all over with a fork. Sprinkle the sea salt over the tops and press down gently. Use the lower amount of sea salt if you plan to serve the crackers with cheese or cold cuts.

Bake the crackers of 15 to 20 minutes, until slightly browned around the edges and stiff. They will harden more as they cool. Break them apart, and keep them stored in an air-tight tin until wanted.





Last year at this time I made Sour Cherry & Apricot Food Processor Sorbet.

Seedy Red Fife Crackers & Monforte Cheese

I first heard about Monforte Dairy almost exactly one year ago at Taste of Woolwich. Ruth Klahsen, Monforte's founder, was there with some samples of her wonderful sheeps milk cheeses. Since then, I've occasionally picked up some of their cheeses at the 100 Mile Market in Meaford. The selection is getting slim though, because Monforte Dairy has not been producing any cheese since mid-winter.

For 4 years, Monforte was based in rented premises. This was not an ideal situation and even before the rent went up Ruth Klahsen was looking for an alternative. However, when the rent went up, she was unable to continue. She is now working to raise enough money to build her own dairy - a very pricey proposition. There's a lot more information about it on her website.

One creative solution that Ruth Klahsen has come up with is to market her dairy as a Community Shared Agriculture venture. You can buy a share now - for $200, for $500 or for $1000 dollars. Later you have a choice of receiving store vouchers to be exchanged for Monforte cheeses over a five year period, or having cheese baskets delivered twice a year for five years. In either case, you will reap a lovely dividend; you will receive $300, or $750 worth of cheese depending on your investment. (You can't get the baskets with the largest share because of shipping costs; you will have to take $1500 worth of vouchers.) Monforte made a wide range of sheeps milk products (and some goat milk products) so you would actually be able to get quite a variety.

We're planning to buy a share, although we will have to figure out which one we can afford, and when. I think it's a brilliant idea, and the cheese is fab. Meanwhile, there is to be a "Town Hall" meeting in Stratford mid-May, and a ground-breaking event in June. I'll post dates as I get them.



Above are two kinds of Cheddar; one plain and one smoked. There are also a number of flavoured Cheddars. I'm partial to the one with garlic scapes. The other cheese is Bauman's Smoked, which is Monforte's version of Oscypek, a Polish cheese. Halloumi, alas is long gone - I never did get my hands on any. Well, next year.

And, oh yeah, I made some crackers to go with our Monforte cheeses. Crackers are amazingly easy to make. Baking and cooling them is the most time consuming part, and even that doesn't take long. Store any leftovers in a tin, so they stay fresh.

40 to 48 crackers
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time



2 cups red fife flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2/3 cup filtered water
3 tablespoons sunflower seed oil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut pieces of parchment paper to fit 2 large baking trays.

Mix the flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and seeds in a bowl. Add the water and sunflower seed oil, and mix well. I generally give up on the spoon about when it's about three-quarters mixed, and use my hands.

Once the dough is well mixed and all the seeds and flour absorbed, form the dough into a ball and cut it in half. Roll out each half on one of the pieces of parchment paper, in a rectangle as evenly thin as you can get it. Use a pizza cutter to score it into crackers. Poke it all over with a fork. Sprinkle the crackers with a little more salt. If you expect to serve them with cheese or cold cuts, I would suggest you use the lower amount of salt.

Bake the crackers for 15 to 20 minutes; it will vary according to how thin you were able to get them. They should be stiff and just lightly browned around the edges. Let them cool and break them apart. They will get crisper as they cool.






Last year at this time I made Scottish Potato Scones and Maple Cream Puffs.

Chick Pea, Tomato & Cucumber Salad

With greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers, and peppers if you would like them, this simple Mediterranean-style salad can be made all year long. I suppose you could serve it as a side-salad, but it's the kind of thing that we eat as our full meal. Round it out with some good, rustic bread and you are all set.

It's funny; though we could eat this all year, for some reason I tend to forget about bean salads in the fall. As soon as the first whiff of spring arrives though, I start making them again. I guess I prefer a hot meal in the winter.

I'm saying 15 minutes to prepare this salad, but that does assume you have made the salad dressing in advance. Also, this salad is pretty flexible about what goes into it. I wouldn't put all the optional ingredients in (I didn't use any of them here, in fact) because I do think its simplicity is part of its charm. However, any of the items suggested will fit in very well.

2 servings
15 minutes prep time


1 large carrot
1 540 ml (19 ounce) tin chick peas, or 2 cups cooked chick peas
2 small cucumbers, or 2 cups sliced cucumber
6 to 8 small tomatoes, or 2 cups quartered
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup diced yellow pepper (optional)
6 to 8 brined black olives (optional)
1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
1 green onion, chopped (optional)

1/2 recipe Italian Salad Dressing


Peel the carrot, and cut it into dice about the size of the chick peas. Put them in a pot with water to cover, and boil them for about 5 minutes. Drain them and rinse in cold water.

Meanwhile, drain and rinse the chick peas, and put them in a salad bowl with the sliced cucumbers, quartered tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, carrots and any of the optional ingredients if desired.

Toss with the dressing and serve.





Last year at this time I made Shaker Baked Carrots.

Italian Salad Dressing

Traditionally made with olive oil, of course. However, the local sunflower seed oil which is cold-pressed retains a lovely nutty, sunflower-seed flavour and is equally good, in my opinion.

If you want to make a double batch, it does keep well in the fridge for a week or so, when sealed well.

1 scant cup; 4 servings
15 minutes prep time - best to let sit 24 hours


1 small clove of garlic
1/2 of 1 small shallot
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fresh minced or dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon fresh minced or dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon rubbed (dried) basil
piece of lemon zest size of small fingernail
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil or sunflower seed oil

Peel the garlic and mince it as finely as you can; likewise the piece of shallot. Put them in a jar with the seasonings. Peel a small, thin piece off of the lemon before squeezing it, and mince it extremely finely and add it as well. Add the lemon juice, water and vinegar, and mix well. Add the oil, and stir well.

Let the salad dressing sit for 1 hour to overnight before using. Stir well before tossing the dressing with the salad.




Last year at this time I made Fruit Juice Jellies.

Holstein Maplefest

The small-town food-festival season has officially begun! Saturday saw a number of maple festivals take place. This year, we opted to go to Holstein; the village with the kind of volunteer event-organizing skills that could be used to take over the world, if they wanted. Fortunately, they seem to be a pretty laid-back and friendly bunch. (Actually I kind of wish they would. They'd do a lot better job than the current crew; that seems certain.)



Holstein is the only tiny village I know of with a large municipal parking lot. They need it, and make good use of it. We parked and boarded one of the several standard maple syrup festival hay wagons for the trip to the bush. However, they also had a school bus making the circuit for those who couldn't hack the wind - and the wind whipping across the open fields was pretty brutal, even though it wasn't - in theory - that cold.


We jounced across a large, windy (did I mention that!?) corn field towards the site of the festival. Gigantico tent ahoy! Warning: unlike other maple festivals I have been to, Holstein charges an admission fee. $7 for adults, children under 12 free.



Before we got to the tent, we passed a number of stations which allowed you to try such old-fashioned treats as sawing a log with a straight saw, or log rolling. Being old geezers, we wandered on past these.



The tent turned out not to be the main event, although it housed a lively pair of musicians and a number of displays for local groups.



We continued on down the lane into the sugar bush, which turned out to be in a charming, sheltered hidden valley. You can see the blue tubing running throughout the bush. No old-fashioned buckets here; this is a thoroughly modern maple farm.



As we got to the bottom of the valley, a series of sturdy wooden buildings came into view.



OooOO! They put these guys out here on purpose, for sure! Marketing genius. Those were some delicious smelling sausages, but we are self-disciplined*, so we walked around and looked at everything else before we succumbed.



The woodlot was spread with hay to keep it from becoming a mucky mess, and it was lovely to walk around in, being so sheltered. In spite of the snow, we were perfectly warm.



This young man was in charge of producing taffy. Here he is handing out sticks to a hopeful crowd.


Next, the boiled syrup is poured over a bed of crushed ice, where it quickly firms up enough to be scooped up with the aforementioned sticks.



Next door were some demonstrations of more old style kitchen skills. This young woman was churning butter in a rather unusual butter-churn,


and this one was making ice-cream.



Here's a little display of the stages between cream and butter, as well as some washed and stamped butter pats.


Oh, now this smells good! Smoked bacon and sausage...



... right out of the smokehouse! (And it was good, too!)



There were a few trees being tapped with buckets, just to show how it used to be done.



And a kettle of syrup over an open fire.



Here's where all those blue tubes converge.



Vast amounts of sap flow through their stainless steel collections system, as it goes through the process of being reduced to 1/40th or 1/50th of the original volume.


Much of that happens in the "Silver Bullet" behind this man, who was on hand to explain how it all works and answer questions about the maple syrup making process. There was no sap flowing at the time as it was too cold out. In spite of the process now being very mechanized, it has to be supervised at all times when the sap is flowing. Working hours during sap season are therefore long and variable, and very weather dependant.



Here we see how maple syrup was converted to sugar by the First Nations people. (They were just using sap here; but originally it would have been boiled down to syrup first, and the final conversion to sugar would have been done by the addition of hot rocks. This allowed a much higher level of control over a rather tricky process - especially when you are doing it without metal or even glazed pottery vessels.)



The fire in which the rocks were heated, and the steaming trough of sap. Lots of little fires and smoke here - we left smelling slightly sweet, sausagy and smokey.



There were a few farm animals on display - a cow; a large cage with rabbits and pigeons, and this charming little hut full of an eclectic mix of chickens. Why do I find myself thinking of Baba Yaga's hut?



There was a blacksmith, doing some blacksmithing.



Aaaand finally we heeded the call of the sausages and pancakes. We got the "Hungry Man" plate, with 3 pancakes, 4 sausages and a double scoop of beans, for $8. (Not each! We shared it. Yeah, restraint.)



And damn, but yes, that was some mighty fine sausage. The smoky cooking technique made up for the fact that it was a tad over-cooked (it was actually quite lean) with a rich, bacon-y flavour. We didn't buy any sausage on the spot, but I wanted to record the source for, um, posterity.



Then, replete, we tottered back up the hill.



We bought some Kettle Korn (sweet and salty) to console ourselves for the fact that our outing was over, jounced back over the fields and headed home.




* Snicker, snort.




Last year at this time we visited the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

Nasreddin Hodja & The 40 Year-Old Vinegar

Word got around the village that the Hodja had a barrel of 40 year-old vinegar.

One day, his neighbor asked the Hodja: "Is it true that you have a barrel of 40 year-old vinegar?"

"Yes I do," replied the Hodja.

"Could you spare me a little cupful?" asked the neighbor.

"No." said the Hodja.

"No?" said the neighbour, "Why ever not?"

"If I gave a little cupful to everyone who asked for it," said the Hodja, "it would not be forty years old!"

"Natural"

Through Taste T.O., I read this article on "natural" meat at The Atlantic, and was prompted to put together a few thoughts of my own on the topic.

The use of the word "natural" as a description of certain kinds of foods has always made me a touch uneasy, and looking at the comments following the article, it's clear I am not alone.

What the hell does "natural" mean when it pertains to food? And why, in fact, should it mean anything particular?

Human beings have always seen themselves as a creation separate from the rest of the planet - let's call it "nature" for short. It wasn't until the rise of the Romantic movement in the late 18th century that this was seen as anything but a good and desirable thing, at which point suddenly all the trendy folks wanted to be at one with nature. Not coincidentally, this was the era of the rise of industrialism. The sudden ability of humans to produce - and pollute - on a scale hitherto unimaginable began a new era of ambiguity about ourselves and our works. And let me be perfectly clear: this ambiguity is a good thing. We should be concerned with the effects of what we do.

The trouble is, this idea that we are separate from nature is a false dichotomy. We are animals*; part of nature, using materials found on this planet and our own evolved intelligences. As such, nothing we do is "unnatural". Undesirable, unsustainable, unhealthy, unjust, bloody stupid and even sometimes malicious, but not unnatural.

Consequently, I don't see how any meaningful legal definition of "natural" meat or other foods is to be determined. If you are going to take the view that what human beings do is separate from nature, then all of agriculture becomes unnatural. Or even hunting with anything more technologically advanced than your hands and teeth, which let me tell you, I am not about take up.

I sympathize with the desire for a simple term that will separate the food we want to eat from the food we don't want to eat. But the more I consider the, uh, nature of food and the way we access it in our society, the more it becomes clear that there is no simple term because there is no simple determination of "good" food or "bad" food.

Sure, we can say that ideally, food should be nutritious, raised and slaughtered in a humane manner, grown and harvested in a way that benefits farmers and farm workers more than corporations, doesn't damage the environment through toxic chemicals applied at the growing point or by the petro-chemicals required for packaging and shipping, and it would be jolly nice if it tasted half-way decent too. That's just not simple, and it never will be.

That list is only somewhat dependant on "nature". I'm afraid the word that comes to mind is "politics". And that's one of the main reasons I eat as much local food as I do. Like most people, the only politics I really have any level of input into are relatively local; my region, my province and my country.

Do you think that we will ever see "political food shops" instead of "natural food shops"? It doesn't have the same marketing appeal, but it would be a little more grounded in reality.








* Am I the only one who looks around and thinks, "Jeez! Look at all these crazy apes!"? I don't think so. And if anyone doubts that we are apes, let me direct your attention to the comments section of any topic of political interest on any well-read internet site. Read, inwardly digest, return, look me in the eye, and tell me we aren't primates. I promise to laugh, point and throw peanuts at you.

Maple Gingerbread

This is very good gingerbread, but it has to be admitted the maple flavour is fairly subtle. It generally is, in cakes, and if you throw in spices too, it's inevitable. But it's there, and mingles with the spices very well. You could serve it with applesauce or whipped cream, but we ate it plain and enjoyed it very much.

12 servings
1 hour - 15 minutes prep time


1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sunflower seed oil
1 extra-large egg
1 cup dark maple syrup

2 1/2 cups soft (pastry) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 nutmeg, grated

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 9" x 13" pan.

Beat the sugar, oil, egg and maple syrup in a mixing bowl until smooth.

Measure the flour and mix the soda, salt and spices into it.

Mix the flour and buttermilk alternately into the syrup mixture, until just blended. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.





Last year at this time I made Baked Steak.

Minus 8 Vinegar

We actually bought this stuff a year ago. A relative had given us a gift certificate to a (then) local gourmet shop, and we bought a bottle of Minus 8 vinegar, along with a few other vinegars. The idea was that we would do a vinegar taste test. In particular, I was looking for a passable "balsamic" vinegar that didn't cost an arm and a leg. This week we finally got around to doing it.

We cooked up a batch of rice to clean our mouths between times, and put out our collection of vinegars. The results were mostly somewhat depressing, although not surprising. The corelation between price and quality was absolute. I won't comment* on any but the Minus 8, since it was the only one produced in Ontario, or even Canada.

There's a lot of hype out there about this stuff, but frighteningly, it's deserved. We made the mistake of trying it early in the testing, and after that everything tasted thin and flat by comparison. They say you can drink this vinegar, and they aren't kidding. I had my little lick and just about floated off my chair. More, more, more!

I restrained myself. After all, we paid $30 for a tiny 100 ml bottle, which seems to be the standard price. And at that price, I won't be sloshing it over just any old salad. It will get drizzled over grilled chicken or fish, strawberries, broiled peaches, or other places where it can be distinctly tasted.

I'm not a wine drinker, so I'm not even going to try to use wine terminology that I don't know. But I will say that this vinegar still maintains a wine-like character. It's sweet, grapey and fragrant, complex and lingering compared to any of the other vinegars we tried.

You will likely find it in various gourmet shops, or it can be ordered directly over the internet. The producers are rather secretive about the whole process, which adds, I suppose, to the mystique, but means there isn't much more for me to say.







*Well okay, I will just mention that the bottle of Sotaroni Vinagre de Vino Balsamico Pedro Ximenez, aged for 12 years in oak barrels, at $17.00 for 375 ml was passable, and will do for everyday "balsamic" vinegar use. Spanish, not Italian, which may be why the price was reasonably reasonable for something aged 12 years.

Dad's Maple-Sherry Salad Dressing

Back when I was a teenager my father was interested enough in cooking to keep a notebook of recipe clippings and notes on what he had done right. (The things he did wrong were more-or-less quietly allowed to lapse into oblivion. Pork chops. Canned soup. Slow cooker. That's all I'm saying on that topic.) Of course, in later years I combed through this little book looking for items to put in my own notebook, although by then my "notebook" was an Excel spreadsheet.

This was a salad dressing that he made for a party, hence the rather more luxurious ingredients than go into your average salad dressing. Very nice too.

I served it on a salad of hydroponic lettuce and watercress, carrot, red cabbage and cucumber. (Yes, I picked mine out.) It takes a little looking, but you can put together an all-Ontario green salad even now.

6 to 8 servings
24 hours - 10 minutes prep time


1/4 cup sunflower seed oil
1/4 cup sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 clove garlic, sliced
salt & pepper
1 tablespoon filtered water

Put all the above ingredients into a glass jam jar, and close it. Shake well, and let it sit for 24 hours before using. Remove the garlic at that point, and discard it. Leftover dressing will keep for a week or so in the fridge.

Best with a light salad of mixed greens.





Last year at this time I made Cabbage with Salsa.

German Celariac Salad

It's hard to give quantities for this; use whatever size piece of celeriac you think will be eaten. If you need more dressing, just make a little more... it couldn't be easier.

This recipe was adapted out of a favourite book - Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, by William Woys Weaver. Unlike other celeriac salads I have made, this one requires cooking, which allows it to soak up the dressing. The result is very simple but flavourful.

30 minutes - 10 minutes prep time


celeriac, peeled and cut into 1/2" or 3/4" thick pieces
hydroponic leaf lettuce

2 tablespoons sunflower seed oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper
1/4 teaspoon finely minced fresh or dry thyme

Prepare the celeriac, and put it in a pot with water to just cover. Bring to a boil and boil gently until tender, about 10 minutes, but it will depend on the size of your pieces. Keep them 1/2" to 3/4" thick though, so that they will cook on the inside before the outsides start falling apart. Rinse well in cold water and let drain. Cool enough to handle.

Whisk together the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and thyme.

Cut the cooled celeriac into as thin strips as you can do. Toss them with the dressing, and let them sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Arrange them over the lettuce to serve.





Last year at this time I made Sour Cherry Crisp.

Miscellaneous Items From The Canadian Farm Cook Book

When you get to the end of the Canadian Farm Cook Book, there is a chapter of miscellaneous recipes. A number of them are for chocolate, tea and coffee, but there are also some non-food items, which could loosely be described as household hints. These were found in most old cook books, and they make for fascinating reading.

I'll start with the drinks though:

"COCOA. - Cocoa is a tasty drink when properly made, and one of the least injurious. For 1 cup take 2 level teaspoons of cocoa and the same quantity of sugar, stir together and add water drop by drop, stirring constantly until a smooth, even paste has been secured. The success of the drink depends largely on the care used in thus mixing the water and cocoa. Place 1/2 cup milk over fire and allow it to heat until it begins to simmer around the sides of the pan, add the cocoa and allow it to come to the boiling point. Then remove from the fire and beat vigorously for 2 or 3 minutes. This beats the air into it and removes the heaviness from the cocoa, making it a lighter and more refreshing drink. This makes 1 cup. - Miss Blanche Stone, 505 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto."

"COFFEE SECRETS. - The almost imperceptible flavour of vanilla is a great improvement to coffee; add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to coffee for 4 persons just before serving.

A pinch of salt in coffee helps to give a delicate flavor.

In France and Norway coffee is roasted fresh every morning on a covered shovel kept in constant motion over the fire; a piece of butter the size of a walnut and a dessertspoon of powdered sugar to three pounds of green coffee added while roasting is said to bring out both flavor and aroma and to give the caramel taste so enjoyed by tourists in those countries.

White of an egg (the yolk should never be used) clears the coffee, but too much spoils the flavour.

Coffee essence, very useful in travelling or camping, may be made as follows: 1/4 pound of ground coffee put in a percolator and simmer in 1 pint of boiling water; allow it to filter, not boil, for about 20 minutes; when cool, cork tightly in bottle or can.

2 tablespoons in a breakfast cup of hot milk makes a delicious and easily prepared drink. - H. A. T., Buffalo, N.Y. - By Courtesy of "Delineator."

Although Canadians used to be more known as tea drinkers than coffee drinkers - I'm not sure how true that was - there are several more recipes for coffee, and by comparison tea gets short shrift;

"TEA. - Allow 1 teaspoon of tea to each person. Have the teapot hot and then put in the tea; pour over the boiling water until steeper is a little more than half full; cover tightly and let it stand where it will keep hot but not boil. Let it steep thus for 10 or 15 minutes and then, if desired, pour into a separate tea urn, adding more boiling water, in proportion of 1 cup of water for every teaspoon of dry tea used. Have hot water kettle of copper, brass or ordinary pitcher, if it will keep water almost at boiling point, and weaken tea to suit taste. Do not use water for tea that has boiled long. Spring water is the best for tea, and filtered water the next best.

TEA A LA RUSSE is made in the same way and served with a slice of lemon either in cup and tea poured over it, or placed on saucer beside cup. Rind is always left on. No cream is used in this tea. - Mrs. Joseph Woodrow, Richmond Hill, Ont."

That's the entire section on tea. It's mostly very good advice, although I can't imagine steeping it for 15 MINUTES!!! then diluting. Still strong enough to trot a mouse. Steep it for 4 minutes exactly, that's what I say, then take the tea ball or tea bags out, and serve it diluted only by milk, sugar or lemon, if wanted.

Okay, now that you have a nice cup of the hot beverage of your choice, let's see what else they have.

"TO PREVENT RED ANTS. - Put 1 pint of tar in an earthen vessel, pour on it 2 quarts of boiling hot water and place it in your closet."

You know what the next recipe is going to be, don't you? Oh yes, you do:

"TO REMOVE TAR. - Rub well with clean lard, afterwards wash with soap and warm water. Apply this to either hands or clothing."

From there we jump to:

"TO TAKE INK OUT OF LINEN. - Dip the part in pure tallow melted, then wash out the tallow and the ink will disappear."

which seems like the same advice, really. But this is a new topic;

"CURE FOR RINGWORM. - Put a penny into a tablespoon of vinegar, let it remain until it becomes green. Wash the ringworm with this 2 or 3 times a day.

CURE FOR RHEUMATISM AND BILIOUS HEADACHE. - Finest turkey rhubarb 1/2 ounce, carbonate magnesia 1 ounce, mix alternately, keep well corked in glass bottle. Dose, 1 teaspoon in milk and sugar the first thing in the morning. Repeat until cured. Tried with success."

From medicine we move to household decorating;

"CHEAP PAINT FOR KITCHEN FLOOR. - And one that cleans off easily. - Apply paint with a cheap white-wash brush, and oil with a paint brush. 5 pounds bright yellow ochre, 2 pounds powdered white lead, 1/4 pound white glue, 1 gallon hard water. Boil altogether and be careful it does not boil over and apply to floor while still hot. When dry take 1 gallon boiled oil and go over it. This recipe will cover a floor 15 x 15 ft. Some like a little red ochre in it. - Mrs Edwin B. Kerns, Zimmerman P. O. Ont."

Well, that explains why they didn't worry about their methods for canning meat. Do you suppose they used the same pot? If they did, they could clean it with

"COSTICK SOAP. - 5 pounds costick (40 cents worth), 20 quarts soft water, 25 pounds grease or scraps; boil all together in kettle for 2 hours, then add 1 cup salt; let stand over night after covering it up well. Next day cut soap out, boil again, with 10 quarts soft water, 1/4 pound borax, 1/4 pound resin, 1 cup turpentine, 1 cup salt, 1 cup ammonia; boil 2 hours, let it stand a while; it is then finished."

I've got to say, that sounds caustic all right. Let's hop back in the book and end it on a sweeter note:

"MAPLE SUGAR COOKIES. - 2 large cups maple sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup butter, 2 tablespoons sweet milk, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 teaspoon soda, flour enough to roll soft. - Mrs Walter Edwards, Cookshire, Que."