Vegetables
Green vegetables always are at their best when cheapest and most plentiful. Out of season they never have the same flavor, however well they may be grown. Excepting artichokes, all summer vegetables, as lettuce, peas, beans, and asparagus should be cooked as soon as possible after gathering. The freshness of most vegetables may be ascertained easily by taking a leaf or a pod between the fingers. If fresh this will snap off short and crisp, while if stale it will be limp and soft. It is an economy to buy winter vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, celery, and potatoes in large quantities, if you have storage room, as if buried in sand and kept from the frost they may be kept a considerable time. Onions should be kept hung up in a cool, dry place. If allowed to sprout the flavor becomes rank and coarse.