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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-07-18, Page 12The summer blood donor is a rare bird. Be one. fritndt foie life AN The Canadian had cross tociery/ Huron Hotel r Seaforth •Hwy. #8--- Furniture VALUES! Goettler al High Quality Low Prices 00 GQETTLER of Ouhtin Furniture MAIN STREET 345-2250 Closed Mon. Open all day Wed: Fri. night till 9 p.m: DRIVE a LITTLE and SAVE a LOT FURNITURE Fine 12 zr THE BRUSSELS POST, JULY 18, 1979 Consumer column How to keep fruit fresh longer BY USE GUNBY The all-too-short strawberry season has drawn to a close, but a summer full of fruit and vegetable delights is just beginning. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food publishes, many tips that will make enjoying these Canadian products much easier. There are few foods as good tasting and as good for you as Canadian fruits in season. Cut them up into a nice chunky salad, eat them with cheese, or eat them as they come naturally. The sweet cherry season has arrived. Refrigerate the cherries uncovered, and wash only when you are ready to use them. Raspberries will be ready nearer to the end of the month. Refrigerate uncovered as well. Ripen yellow plums at a cool temperature, Ready in the latter part of July to the first half of August, they should be refrigerated covered. Sour cherries also ripen at this time, or a little earlier. They can be kept uncovered in the fridge. Apricots, ripe later this month and early next, will keep best in a cool\, dry place or uncovered in the fridge. Earlired peaches will be ready in early August, Sunhaven peaches in the first half of August, Redhaven peaches in mid August, Golden Jubilee peaches in the latter part of August, and Loring peaches in the latter part of August or in the first part of September. Ripen them at a cool room temperature, away from the direct sunlight. Refrigerate uncovered. You can pick blueberries in August. Keep them uncovered in the fridge and wash and stem when you are ready to use them. Muskmelons have a longer season, from the latter half of August to early October. Ripen them in a cool place, wrap them in plastic, and refridgerate. Apples, from the last half of August to I late September should be kept in perforated plastic in the fridge. Pears, • ready at the same time, should be refridgerated uncovered. Blue plums, with the same season, should be covered. All these fruits are good plain, and have a low calorie count: 55 calories for 1 cup of strawberries, 35 for a medium peach, and 25 for a plum.° But there is an endless number of fruit recipes for variations. A six quart basket of peaches yields 4 to 5 quarts of home canned peaches. Sugar acts as an important preservative, but all fruits can be canned or frozen without it. Unsweetened fruit is much healthier, and the taste of the natural sugar in the product is much nicer once you become accustomed to it. Crystalline ascorbic acid (a quarter teaspoon dissolved in 1/4 cup of cold water for 4 cups of prepared peaches) acts to prevent the darkening of colour. To peel • peaches and plums, submerge them in boiling water for 30 seconds, then _plunge in cold. The skins will slide off. Redhaven and Loring peaches are merchandized by name, o ,Stye svcOol. e oicnboX VA WO WI voN ovte OttealsOPOt , O. Oeaos toette CO tears ceotiviletve g rivies gfavis vt3, Oeaos roOktve On 00,0 tOvcoette voeans We The other kinds are sold as "early peaches" or "freestone peaches." Sunhaven, Redhaven, and Loring peaches are good for freezing. Redhaven, Jubilee, Velvet and Loring are good canning varieties. To determine whether a peach is ripe, ' look for a creamy yellow tinge behind the blush and at the stem end. The blush is not a sure indicator of ripeness, and avoid those with a green tinge. Pears, unlike other fruits, ripen from the inside out. Fruit pies will freeze well. Fruit sauces and compotes will also keep frozen. Allow space for expansion during the freezing process. ** * * * * To keep vegetables looking 'as nice on your, plate as they did in the garden, treat them carefully. Beans, green and yellow, should be bagged in plastic, kept in the fridge, and used within S days for maximum freshness. Broccoli should be stored the same way, but is best within 3 days. Cabbages can be refrigerated for 2 _ weeks, after a thin slice is cut from the stem and they are wrapped in plastic. Carrots, with the green tops removed can be kept for the same length of time in the same way. Cauliflower should be refrigerated with the outer leaves attached and a slice cut from the stem. Use them within, 10 days. Celery should be stored with the excess leaves removed and a slice from the stem trimmed off. It is best before 2 weeks. Cucumbers, wrapped in plastic, are best used within 5 days. Core lettuce heads before refrigerating. Hold the cored end under cold water, and turn the end down. Drain thoroughly, roll in towelling, and store in a tightly closed plastic bag in the fridge. Use the lettuce within a week. Mushrooms should be stored id a bowl, covered with a damp cloth, and refrigerated. They can also be kept in a paper bag. Either way, they should be used within a week. The root end of onions should be trimmed, the rest wrapped in plastic, and used within 5 days. Peppers should be kept unwrapped. Radishes should be stored in a tightly closed bag. Rutabagas will keep 3 months if kept at a cool room temperature or refridgerated. Spinach can be left in its original package or washed in lightly salted water, drained, wrapped in towelling, and store. Spinach should be used within 4 days. Field tomatoes should be ripened at a cool room temperature, and when ripe, stored in tightly closed plastic in the fridge. A Post Classified will pay you dividends. Have you tried one? Dial Brussels 887-6641. Every week more and more people discover what mighty jobs are accomplished by low cost Post Want Ads. Dial Brussels 887-6641. Post office has now converted to metric The conversion of the post office to metric has come and gone painlessly, it seems. Effective July 1, Canad ians weigh their mail by grams, not ounces. Although the new Conservative is re- viewing the whole conversion program, the preparations for the post office change were too far advanced by election time to halt. The conversion to metric will allow people mailing letters to other parts of Canada and the United States an extra two grams in first class envelopes bearing a 17 cent stamp. In Seaforth, the post office has received its new small scale, and is waiting for the arrival of their new large gram scale. The old pound scales will be returned to the head office in London. While individual letter writers are getting a little more weight for their money, the switch throughout the country will cost Canadian taxpayers an estimated $1.6 million. Those mailing letters formally paid 17 cents for first class mail weighing one ounce or less. Now, we will pay 17 cents for first class mail weighing 30 grams or. less. One ounce equals 28.3' grams. The extra two grams allowed are a result of a rounding off of the metric figure, say Post Office offic- ials. But while first class mail inside the country was rounded off to the customer's advantage, rates for mail travelling anywhere outside the country except for the United States was rounded down to 20 grams under an agreement made between Canada and other countries which 'are members of the Universal Postal Union. But the increased cost for foreign metric mail will be minimal, say the Post Office 'officials, because 93 per cent of our overseas letters weigh less than. 20 ,grams anyway. • There are 11,000 imperial weight' letter scales in the country, and more , parcel Operation Life/tile If you are otherwise in good health, regular vigorous physical activity for at least 30 minutes three times a week will help shape up an even healthier you in a mat- ter of months. scales to be replaced. The pld scales, some more than 100 years old and thus collector's items, will be auctioned off by Crown Assets Disposal Corporation, officials say. A review of the whole conversion program has been ordered by Industry, Trade and Commerce Minister Robert de Cotret, who called the program "one big pain in the neck." But until such time as the review is completed, conver- sion to metric continues as planned by the previous' government. By Jan. 1, 1980, food items such as meat, fish, poultry, produce, cheese and candy will be weighed and sold in grams and kilograms in grocery stores across the country. In May 2-1-0-9 June 2-1-0,9 July 2-1-0-9 Peterborough, Kamloops and Sherbrooke, .this process has already begun. If the addresi label on the front of your paper says Your subscription is DUE NOW