|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 36
I imagine that if these pages are ever read, and such advice as I
can give is followed, it will be more often by the mistress than
the master of the Home Acre. I address him, but quite as often I
mean her; and just at this point I am able to give "the power
behind the throne" a useful hint. Miss Alcott, in her immortal
"Little Women," has given an instance of what dire results may
follow if the "jelly won't jell." Let me hasten to insure domestic
peace by telling my fair reader (who will also be, if the jelly
turns out of the tumblers tremulous yet firm, a gentle reader)
that if she will have the currants picked just as soon as they are
fully ripe, and before they have been drenched by a heavy rain,
she will find that the jelly will "jell." It is overripe, water-
soaked currants that break up families and demolish household
gods. Let me also add another fact, as true as it is strange, that
white currants make red jelly; therefore give the pearly fruit
ample space in the garden.
In passing to the consideration of varieties, it is quite natural
in this connection to mention the white sorts first. I know that
people are not yet sufficiently educated to demand white currants
of their grocers; but the home garden is as much beyond the
grocer's stall as the home is better than a boarding-house. There
is no reason why free people in the country should be slaves to
conventionalities, prejudices, and traditions. If white currants
ARE sweeter, more delicious and beautiful than the red, why, so
they are. Therefore let us plant them abundantly.
If there is to be a queen among the currants, the White Grape is
entitled to the crown. When placed upon the table, the dish
appears heaped with translucent pearls. The sharp acid of the red
varieties is absent, and you feel that if you could live upon them
for a time, your blood would grow pure, if not "blue."
The bush producing this exquisite fruit is like an uncouth-looking
poet who gives beauty from an inner life, but disappoints in
externals. It is low-branching and unshapely, and must be forced
into good form--the bush, not the poet--by the pruning-knife. If
this is done judiciously, no other variety will bear more
profusely or present a fairer object on a July day.
The White Dutch has the well-known characteristics in growth of
the common Red Dutch currant, and is inferior only to the White
Grape in size. The fruit is equally transparent, beautiful, mild,
and agreeable in flavor, while the bush is enormously productive,
and shapely in form, if properly trained and fertilized.
While the white currants are such favorites, I do not undervalue
the red. Indeed, were I restricted to one variety, it should be
the old Dutch Red of our fathers, or, more properly, of our
grandmothers. For general house uses I do not think it has yet
been surpassed. It is not so mild in flavor as the white
varieties, but there is a richness and sprightliness in its acid
that are grateful indeed on a sultry day. Mingled with the white
berries, it makes a beautiful dish, while it has all the culinary
qualities which the housekeeper can desire. If the bush is
rigorously pruned and generously enriched, it is unsurpassed in
productiveness, and the fruit approaches very nearly to the Cherry
currant in size.
I do not recommend the last-named kind for the home garden, unless
large, showy fruit counts for more than flavor. The acid of the
Cherry currant, unless very ripe, is harsh and watery. At best it
never acquires an agreeable mildness, to my taste. The bushes also
are not so certainly productive, and usually require skilful
pruning and constant fertilizing to be profitable. For the market,
which demands size above all things, the Cherry is the kind to
grow; but in the home garden flavor and productiveness are the
more important qualities. Fay's Prolific is a new sort that has
been very highly praised.
The Victoria is an excellent late variety, which, if planted in a
sheltered place, prolongs the currant-season well into the autumn.
Spurious kinds are sold under this name. The true Victoria
produces a pale-red fruit with tapering clusters or racemes of
berries. This variety, with the three others recommended, gives
the family two red and two white kinds--all that are needed. Those
who are fond of black currants can, at almost any nursery, procure
the Black Naples and Lee's Prolific. Either variety will answer
all practical purposes. I confess they are not at all to my taste.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|