fruits. But all fruits are better, for very young children, if baked or cooked in some manner, and eaten with bread. The French always eat bread with raw fruit. Apples and winter pears are very excellent food for children,—indeed, for almost any person in health,—but best when eaten for breakfast or dinner. If taken late in the evening, fruit often proves injurious. The old saying, that apples are
gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night
, is pretty near the truth. Both apples and pears are often good and nutritious when baked or stewed, and when prepared in this way are especially suitable for those delicate constitutions that cannot bear raw fruit. Much of the fruit gathered when unripe might be rendered fit for food by preserving in sugar.
2086. Ripe Currants
Ripe Currants are excellent food for children. Mash the fruit, sprinkle with sugar, and let them eat freely, taking some good bread with the fruit.
2087. Blackberry Jam
Gather the fruit in dry weather; allow half a pound of good brown sugar to every pound of fruit; boil the whole together gently for an hour, or till the blackberries are soft, stirring and mashing them well. Preserve it like any other jam, and it will be found very useful in families, particularly for children, regulating their bowels, and enabling you to dispense with cathartics. It may be used in the ordinary way in roll-over puddings, and for tarts, or spread on bread instead of butter; and even when the blackberries are bought, it is cheaper than butter. In the country every family should preserve at least half a peck of blackberries.