And what the creatures did eat - seeds, roots, bulbs, tubers, stalks, shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits, fungi! They called them beans and peas; turnips and carrots; onions and garlic; potatoes and artichokes; asparagus and poke; celery and chard; cauliflower and broccoli; tomatoes and cucumbers; and mushrooms!

- Visitors from Mars.

ALL the elements needed for nutrition are found in vegetables. In beans, peas, lentils, and other legumes, much protein is furnished, and for this reason they can often be used in place of meat. (See chapter on "Meat Substitutes.") In such vegetables as potatoes and squash there is an abundance of starchy or fuel-and-energy food. From olives, nuts, and corn come oils which are also fuel-and-energy foods. Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, turnips, carrots, tomatoes, and other succulent (juicy) vegetables contain the valuable mineral matter and vitamins which no chemist save Nature can wisely furnish.

Perhaps one reason why vegetables are not used in greater variety is that they are not always properly cooked. Over-cooking lessens the food value of many vegetables, destroys their color, and tends to make them tasteless and tough. Green vegetables should not be permitted to boil one minute after they begin to lose their green color. As a rule, root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, and salsify are best cooked in unsalted water, gently boiling. This applies emphatically to turnips. Never soak wilted vegetables in salted water, for salt hardens the fiber. This is particularly true of cucumbers. Use fresh cold water.

Potatoes should be thinly pared, not so much for economy, as to save the mineral matters which are stored close to the skin. Jacket-boiled potatoes retain most, and baked potatoes retain practically all of these valuable food adjuncts.

Canned goods are improved if the contents are removed from the container upon opening, and exposed to the air for an hour or more to re-oxygenate.

Delicate vegetables containing sugar, such as green peas and sweet corn, lose flavor and sweetness every minute after leaving the mother-stalk. Leave them in pod or husk until ready to cook, and then serve as nearly immediately as possible.

Start vegetables with boiling water. With very few exceptions, they should be left uncovered, or only partially covered, to permit exposure to the air. Of course this does not apply when a steamer is used in cooking,