thoroughly glazed earthenware, or thick, dark glass. Wash
well, fill with hot water, add a half-pound washing soda, and let stand
a day. Empty, rinse three times, and wipe dry. Thus you make end to
potential molds and microbes. Do this in early spring. Put into the jar,
a quart of good brandy and a tablespoonful of mixed spices--any your
taste approves, also a little finely shredded yellow peel of lemons and
oranges. Wash well and hull a quart of fine ripe strawberries, add them
with their own weight in sugar to the brandy, let stand till raspberries
and cherries are ripe, then put in a quart of each, along with their
weight in sugar. Do this with all fruit as it comes in season--forced
fruit, or that shipped long distances has not enough flavor. Add grapes,
halved and seeded, gooseberries, nibbed and washed, blackberries,
peaches pared and quartered. Currants are best left out, but by no means
slight plums. The big meaty sorts are best. Add as much sugar as fruit,
and from time to time more brandy--there must be always enough to stand
well above the fruit. Add spices also as the jar grows, and if almond
flavor is approved, kernels of all the stone fruit, well blanched. Lay
on a saucer or small plate, when the jar is full, to hold the fruit well
under the liquor. Tie down, and leave standing for three months. Fine
for almost any use--especially to sauce mild puddings.

_Green Tomato Preserves_: Take medium size tomatoes, smooth, even,
meaty, just on the point of turning but still green. Pare very
carefully with a sharp knife. Cut out eyes, taking care not to cut into
a seed cavity. Weigh--to four pounds fruit take six of sugar. Lay the
peeled tomatoes in clear lime water for an hour, take out, rinse, and
simmer for ten minutes in strained ginger tea. Make a syrup in another
kettle, putting half a cup water to the pound of sugar. Skim clean, put
in the tomatoes, add the strained juice of lemons--three for a large
kettle full, and simmer for two hours, until the fruit is clear. Cut the
lemon rind in strips, boil tender in strong salt water, then boil fresh
in clear water, and add to the syrup. Simmer all together for another
hour, then skim out the fruit, boil the syrup to the thickness of honey,
and pour over the tomatoes after putting them in jars. It ought to be
very clear, and the tomatoes a pale, clear green. Among the handsomest
of all preserves, also the most delicious, once you get the hang of
making them. Ripe yel