Food In Season

As a rule, when food is most cheap and plentiful, it is at its best; out of season, it is expensive and lacking in flavor and quality. In the early spring the provident housekeeper will make use, to a great extent, of vegetables and fruits which are seasonable throughout the year, together with such dried and canned articles as she has found most wholesome and palatable, ever bearing in mind how "all things come to him who will but wait." The following table shows when certain vegetables, fish and game are seasonable.

Fish In Market All The Year

Cod, halibut, haddock, flounder, hard clams, hard crabs, sea bass, and lobsters (the latter are best from December to April).

Vegetables And Fruit All The Year

Artichokes (imported), beets (new in April), cabbage (new in August), carrots (new in May), cauliflower (new in August, in New England and Middle West), mushrooms (cultivated), onions (home grown, July to June, Bermuda, from January 15th to July 15th); peppers (January to June, South), potatoes (South, April; Long Island, July 1st; Bermuda, January 15th to July), sweet (August to May), lettuce (hotbeds) garden (in June), water-cress, spinach, tomatoes (March 1st, South; July to October, garden; November to March, hothouse), turnips (new from June to September), bananas, cocoanuts, lemons, oranges (Florida, November to March, best November and February), from Italy and Sicily, shipped largely in December and January.

Fish In Season

Lake bass, from June to January; bluefish, May to November; bonito, June to November; mackerel, April to October; Spanish mackerel, April 15th to October 15th; perch, September to June; pickerel, June to January; pompano, May to August, and November 15th to Jan, 1st; red snapper, October to April; salmon, Kennebec, June to October; Oregon, October to June; shad and roe; Charleston, January, Norfolk (Va.), February, New York, April 1st, Boston, April 30th; smelts, August 15th to April; brook trout, April to September; whitebait, May to April; oysters, September to May; scallops, September to April; shrimps, March 15th to June 1st, and September 15th to October 15th.

Vegetables In Season

Jerusalem artichokes, October 1st to May 1st; asparagus, hothouse, January to February 15th; garden, May to July; string beans, garden, June to October; South and hothouse, all the year; Lima beans, August to October; dried, all the year; Brussels sprouts, November 15th to March 15th; corn, July to September; cranberries, October to May; cucumbers, garden, July to October; hothouse, all the year; oyster plant and parsnips, August to June; peas, South, January to July; Long Island, July to November; pumpkins, September to February; radishes, May to November, hothouse, all the year; rhubarb, February to July, garden, April; celery, August to April; chicory, July to April; dandelion, hothouse, December to June; summer squash, July to October; winter squash, September to April.

Fruit In Season

Apples, August to May, all the year, cold storage; apricots, July to August 15th; barberries, October to November 15th; blackberries, July to August 15th; cherries, May to July 15th; chestnuts, October to March; currants, July to August 15th; figs, new crop October, all the year except midsummer; gooseberries, July; grapes, July to August; grapefruit, October to July; huckleberries, June 15th to September; melons, July to October; peaches, July to October; pears, July to March; plums, July to October; quinces, September to December; raspberries, June to September; strawberries, garden, April to August, hothouse, January to March.

Game

Duck, of all kinds, September to May; reed birds, September to January; rice birds, September to April; grouse, partridge and woodcock, August 15th to February 1st; pheasants, October to February; rabbits, November to January; squabs, September to January; squirrel, August to February; wild turkey, November to May; quail, stall fed, all the year, wild, November to February; plovers and snipe, September to January.

Poultry, Etc

Beef, all the year, best, November to March; mutton, all the year, best, November to April; veal, all the year, best April and May; lamb, house, December 25th to July, yearling, best, August to November; pork, best, October to March; turkey, and fowl, best, October to March; chickens to broil, August, incubator, all the year; pigeons and squabs, stall fed, all the year; ducklings, May to December; domestic duck and geese, September to May.