Plan To Plant For Flavor and Nutrition
(Page 2 of 4)
January/February 1971
By Charles F. Jenkins
Separate a few seeds (from a raw, not cooked, tomato!) into a pan or cup. Wash as much pulp from them as possible and spread the seeds on a paper towel or cloth for a day or two to dry. About 6 to 8 weeks before you want to set plants in your garden, drop these seeds onto a mixture of equal parts sand, peat moss and/or vermiculite and cover slightly. Use dirt only if you bake it for an hour at 250° F because dirt sometimes contains spores that kill sprouted seeds. Use small flower pots and other containers which will fit on the inside sill of a window that faces south for your sprouting beds. Water moderately and, with average home temperatures, you'll have your supply of tomato plants free.
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Until four or five years ago, serving sweet corn at our house was not only a matter of production, but of timing, too. My wife placed a pan of water on the range burner while I strolled out to the patch of sweet corn. When the water boiled she rang the old farm bell near the rear door and I began to pull and husk ears as fast as possible. Clutching the freshly peeled ears, I then galloped to the kitchen and dropped them into the boiling water. Like all real roasting ear devotees, we believed that flavor and sweetness diminished by the moment and we were determined to salvage the most of both.
A new variety of sweet corn, Illini-Chief, put an end to my mad dashes several years ago, however. Illini-Chief is several times more expensive than any other hybrid corn . . . and worth it. Twice as sweet when you pick it, the sugar content of this variety doubles again during the following 48 hours.
Illini-Chief is a mid-term corn and takes about 80 days to mature but, again, it's worth waiting for. In our area, where the first frost of the season arrives between mid-September and mid-October, I make my final planting so late that the last batch is often frosted out. But those years when old Jack F. is late, the last roasting ears taste best of all. Try it and see if you don't agree: Many seed dealers stock this wonderful product of the Illinois Seed Foundation.
If you wanted a spaghetti dinner and the menu listed a one cup serving of spaghetti R with 155 calories, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 11 mg. of calcium, zero vitamin A, zero vitamin C and a nominal assortment of other nutrients versus a cup of spaghetti S with 95 calories, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 49 mg. of calcium, 12,690 International Units of vitamin A, 14 mg. of vitamin C and assorted nutrients equal to spaghetti R . . . which would you order? These figures are from the 1959 U.S. Department of Agriculture Year Book titled FOOD. Spaghetti R is the real extruded Italian product. Spaghetti S is the fantastic spaghetti squash.
